SMU Community Chat
May 28, 2020
Zekelman: Steel Industry "Resilient" in Pandemic
Written by Sandy Williams
“Resilient” is how Barry Zekelman, executive chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, characterized steel markets during the SMU Community Chat Webinar yesterday. “We went through a rapid shock and adjustment at the end of March and early April, but April was actually pretty decent and May is basically back on track,” he said, expressing a fairly optimistic outlook for the rest of the year. “Some sectors will expand at a more rapid rate than others and others will contract or even be gone. And that is unfortunate.”
Most sectors his company serves are doing fairly well and some were barely impacted by the crisis, Zekelman said. Energy and agriculture will be slow coming back both in Canada and the U.S., with Canada lagging a couple months behind the U.S. due to stricter lockdown measures. Although business conditions are currently “brutal” in the energy sector, Zekelman sees the industry as a “fundamental market that will be here for a long time” and with a bright future.
