AIIS hosts Pacific Region Conference
Yesterday at the Los Angeles Harbor Hotel, many important players in the West Coast steel industry met for the Pacific Region Conference, hosted by the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS).
The conference, themed "Economic Growth through Competition in Steel Trade," drew a number of guests and speakers, including representatives from our own SteelOrbis; representatives from fellow metals publication, American Metal Market; members from BlueScope Steel Americas; Brad Decker of MAN Ferrostaal; Scott Shapiro of web-based
trading company SteelSalvor; and representatives of Ancon Transportation, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Port of Los Angeles, as well as many
trading company, steel service center, logistic company representatives.
AIIS President Dave Phelps concluded the conference with a trade update, in which he named some major victories in the world of steel, from his perspective - the termination of the Byrd Amendment and President Bush's decision on the 421 antidumping case.
About the Byrd amendment, Mr Phelps said, "We are pleased, but are not pleased at the two year delay." (The termination will not go into affect until October 1, 2007.)
Of the 421 case, he concluded, "It's not a good idea to use protection to fix a problem that was caused by protection."
Arnold Nesbitt of Union Pacific Railroad and AMM publisher Martin Abbott delivered keynote speeches about the changing face of logistics (Nesbitt) and international market trends (Abbott).
Other noteworthy speakers included from Brad Decker of MAN Ferrostaal and Scott Shapiro of SteelSalvor, who both gave speeches about domestic buying trends.
A West Coast logistics panel was also very interesting and informational, providing an up-to-date look at the challanges of steel transportation regionally and word-wide.