Program

Monday, February 1, 2010

04:00 pm                       Registration desk opens

04:30 pm – 06:00 pm       Speakers Session

Jim Kerkvliet, Vice President of Commercial Sales, Gerdau Ameristeel

Bill Groom, Director of Rod and Bar Sales, Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel

Tom Keller    , Executive Vice President, Macsteel International USA 

06:00 pm – 08:00 pm       Networking Reception

Finally bringing the industry together in Las Vegas

The inaugural SteelOrbis Rebar & Wire Rod Conference & Networking Reception at the World of Concrete was held February 1 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event proved to have the best odds in town by providing a venue for steel professionals immersed in the rebar and wire rod industries to come together under one roof for a few hours while attending the vast World of Concrete.

While the World of Concrete is host to about 60,000 individuals, the most of which are employed in the concrete, masonry, and construction industries, it had been a difficult task for rebar or wire rod traders, buyers, distributors, producers, fabricators, etc. to find worthwhile contacts amongst this large event until this year.  The SteelOrbis Rebar & Wire Rod Conference & Networking Reception at the World of Concrete took the guessing game out of finding valuable business contacts for rebar and wire rod professionals. Moreover, steel professionals were able to cut-down on additional lunches and dinners with colleagues, clients or just friends during the World of Concrete because they were all in the Palms Ballroom on Monday evening.

Additionally, attendees at the event were treated to hear from some of the industry’s foremost speakers, including Jim Kerkvliet, Vice President of Commercial sales, Gerdau Ameristeel; Bill Groom, Director of Rod and Bar Sales, Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel; and Tom Keller    , Executive Vice President, Macsteel International USA.

Murat Askin, General Manager, SteelOrbis Americas moderated the event and introduced Mr. Groom as the evening’s first speaker. Mr. Groom was eager to be the first to engage with the full room of about 125 attendees; however, he had the unfortunate task of talking about the current state of the wire rod and rebar industries. Mr. Groom emphasized that recent spikes in prices do not reflect demand levels and therefore purchasing managers have a very difficult task ahead of them in 2010. Unfortunately, most rebar and wire rod buyers must ere on the cautious side throughout this year or at least until market indicators become clearer. Mr. Groom ended his speech with a light-hearted wish that the tables and slot machines in Las Vegas treat the attendees in the room better than the wire rod and rebar markets did in 2009.

The second speaker during the conference was Mr. Kerkvliet.  Mr. Kerkvliet emphasized how the 2010 may end up being extremely volatile and is largely dependent on liquidity. But the most valuable trait any steel professional must possess this year in order to be successful, is the ability to react to market changes. It is important to have structured game plans geared towards certain circumstances that are likely to transpire but one must be able to quickly react to unforeseen changes as well. “We don’t know what we don’t know,” was a recurring them in Mr. Kerkvliet’s speech. Overall, Mr. Kerkvliet believes that the steel industry is facing a long bathtub shaped recovery. The goal is to get to the final curve of the deep end in good shape.

Mr. Keller provided the evening’s final presentation by looking back at the 2009 longs product market and what we can likely expect in 2010. Echoing Mr. Kerkvliet’s sentiments, Mr. Keller said that the most challenging aspect of 2010 is that the steel markets are not moving right now. Therefore, the market is very “confusing” and unpredictable. In 2008 everyone knew the market was going up (for the first half at least), in 2009 everyone knew it was going down, but 2010 is not demonstrating dominant trend indicators yet, especially since all prices have been cost-driven and not demand-driven. There are many important factors to closely watch in 2010, such as global economies, unemployment levels, and debt and credit lending; however, in order to best predict when a dominant trend is forming, Mr. Keller offers a simple solution; to keep close relations with your company’s end-users. Mr. Keller believes that most significant buying and selling decisions will be more specific to individual companies rather than to industries as a whole, so “the closer you are to the end consumer the easier it will be to read when true demand picks up,” Mr. Keller advised the attendees.

Then it was time to eat and drink, and to work on making new relations and tightening up old ones. If networking and strong customer relations are one of the keys to success in 2010, then attendees at the inaugural SteelOrbis Rebar & Wire Rod Conference & Networking Reception at the World of Concrete already have an advantage over their competition this year.