|
10-11 March 2008 - Chicago
The fourth annual SBB Steel Markets North America conference, in association with AIIS, was held again this March in Chicago, the center of American steel production, distribution, processing and usage. It was a chilly time of year, but the conference was hot, hot, hot! Key Event Details: | Dates | 10-11 March 2008 | | Standard Price | $849 / €600 / £425 |
Programme Overview: One of the themes is "American steel - land of opportuinity," which addresses the fact that the US makes about 35 million fewer tons than it consumes each year. We have been charting the growth of new domestic capacity and see more to come via investments by both domestic and offshore producers. The US steel industry is already roughly half-owned by companies based outside the US and Canada has no domestic ownership. While a more global perspective is developing, the ample size of the North American market begs close domestic analysis. | DAY 1 - Monday, March 10th, 2008 | | | | 09:00 - 12:00 Registration | | 11:00 Press Conference (members of the press only) | | 12:00 Buffet Lunch sponsored by The Steel Index | | 13:45 Key Note Speaker - Mr Don McNeeley, President and COO, Chicago Tube & Iron | | | | 14:00 - 15:00 Session 1: American steel in context | | | Leading industry analysts will discuss the outlook for the 2008 market. Raw material cost increases are pushing up prices in a big way and inventories and imports are down. This convergence of favourable conditions for steelmakers could lead to historically high prices. Will there be enough real demand to sustain them, especially if the R word - Recession - rears its ugly head? We'll hear from the experts. | | |
- Mr. Mark Parr, Research Analyst, Key Banc Capital Markets
- Mr Charles Bradford, President, Bradford Research Inc.
- Mr Mel Wolfgang, Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group | | | | | 15:00-15:30 Coffee Break | | | | | 15:30 - 16:15 Session 2: Cars and steel - the future | | | It was once said that an auto design engineer would kill his grandmother to get another pound of weight out of a car. With pressure from government environmental agencies on one side and $4 per gallon gasoline on the other, would he now kill his grandmother AND grandfather to get that weight reduction? The steel industry has other ideas, but so do its competitors in the materials world. | | |
- Mr Joe Langley, Senior Market Analyst, CSM Worldwide
- Mr Edward Opbroek, Director, World Auto Steel
Plus others to be confirmed soon | | | | | 16:15 - 17:00 Session 3: US - Inventory and price management - volatility everywhere | | | Regarding inventories, conservative is the word that was most often used to describe distributors and steel users in the second half of 2007. But with US service center inventories hitting a 10-year low to start 2008, some buyers are realizing they may have overdone the hand-to-mouth strategy and now face the return of cost-driven high domestic steel prices with little relief from imports. Add an uncertain economic outlook and it is easy to see why indexed contracts and price-hedging mechanisms are getting more attention. | | |
- Mr Norman Gottschalk, President, Maromon Keystone Corporation
- Mr Steven Randall, Managing Director, The Steel Index
- Mr Leon Goldenberg, CEO and President, FREMAK INDUSTRIES, INC.
| | | | | 18:00 Conference Cocktail Reception & 19:00 Conference Dinner | | | | | DAY 2 - Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 | | | | 08:00 - 08:40 Continental Breakfast sponsored by Platts | | 08:45 Key Note Speaker - Mr. Dan DiMicco, CEO, Nucor | | | | 9:30 - 10:30 Session 4: Crisis In freight rates moving steel | | | Freight costs - rail, barge, truck or ship - can make or break a deal, and all of them are rising. Our panellists will discuss the most economic ways to move steel, plus strategies, innovations and opportunities arising in this key segment of the supply chain. | | |
- Mr Peter Svensson, Commercial, Clipper Steel Services
- Mr Michael Ryan, President and CEO, American Commercial Lines
- Mr Gordon D. Gustafson, Chief Commercial Officer, ADS Logistics trucking
- Mr Arnold Nesbitt, Director Port Development, Union Pacific Railroad | | | | | 10:30 - 10:45 Networking Coffee Break | | | | | 10:45 - 11:30 Session 5: America Land Of Opportunity | | | The North American steel industry is nearly half foreign-owned with new players entering the market just this past year such as Russia's Evraz, Sweden's SSAB and India's Essar. The foreign investment doesn't stop there as several greenfield projects on American soil are either underway or under consideration. These developments should not be surprising given America's structural steel shortage of 25-35 million tons per year or more over the past 10 years. But what are the implications for business/supply relations, raw material competition, market share and trade law? | | |
- Mr Daniel T. Schweller, Deloitte & Touche LLP
- Mr Tony Taccone, Partner, First River
- Mr John Foster, Coutinho & Ferrostaal Incorporated | | | | | 11:30 - 12:30 Session 6: China the reality - currency, trade, investment, & steel | | | China continues to make moves to alleviate global concerns that its giant steelmaking capacity could run roughshod over the world of steel. Yet American steelmakers are unimpressed and continue to push for trade legislation - such as calls for a revaluation of the Yuan - to reign in the world's largest producer. Meanwhile, rising raw material costs, and the Chinese government's concerns over the allocation of capital, could serve as a more natural brake on Chinese expansion. | | |
- Mr. Roger Manser, Managing Editor, Steel Business Briefing
- Mr Sun Jianliang, Managing Director, Shanghai J. Sun Trading Consultants Ltd
- Mr Thomas Danjczek, President, Steel Manufactures Association
- Mr David Phelps, President, AIIS
- Mr Matthew P. McCullough, Lawyer, Vinson & Elkins LLP
| | | | | 12:30 Conference Presentations Close | | | | | 13:00 - 14:00 China Workshop led by Mr. Roger Manser | | | You can debate or just listen during this round table session, where the topics for discussion will be numerous, and chosen by the participants |
|
More details: More information will be uploaded to this website regularly, however if you have any urgent questions please do not hesitate to contact events@steelbb.com.
|
