Where is the U.S. economy heading? It depends on who you ask.

The chairman of the nation’s largest flat-rolled producer kicked off three-day FMA Annual Meeting with his take on the state of the steel industry.

This year’s virtual FMA meeting kept attendees up-to-date on business strategies and the state of the metals industry as pandemic worries slowly dissipate.

What will the supply chain and industrial economy look like when we’re fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic? Four experts weigh in.

At the FMA Annual Conference, supply and demand took a backseat to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak and its effect on the global economy.

Service center executives, economists and others talk about demand, pricing challenges in the current steel market at Steel Market Update’s Steel Summit in Atlanta.

The dual effects of Section 232 tariffs and NAFTA upheaval have put the brakes on Mexico’s steel market. The country’s return hinges on an end to the trade uncertainty.

You’ve been hearing about it for a decade or more. The skills gap is coming. The skills gap is here. The skills gap will be the death knell for U.S. industry.

Manufacturing is growing in the United States. It’s just not the traditional form of manufacturing that’s on the rise.

During a panel discussion at the recently concluded FABTECH show in Atlanta, economist Chris Kuehl and Reshoring Institute Executive Director Rosemary Coates spent much of their hour on stage talking about the state of manufacturing and the most pressing issue facing manufacturers – filling openings on the shop floor and elsewhere in the operation.

When the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association kicked off its annual meeting last week in Scottsdale, Ariz., the White House had not yet made official proposed Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Still, the then-pending presidential actions were a major topic for discussion and among the first orders of business at FMA’s yearly gathering.

Chris Kuehl, chief economist for the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association International, told attendees at the joint meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors and Association of Women in the Metal Industries to expect a lot of the same on the political and economic front in the coming months.

Flat-rolled steel prices have been on a tear, but a growing chorus of voices is questioning whether there is enough actual demand to support the five mill price increases announced since October.

We may have a new president, but we have the same political structure we’ve had for 240 years.

Looking forward to 2016, there are a number of reasons to be concerned. There are also some reasons not to be concerned,” said economist Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence, speaking at the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association annual meeting Feb. 25 in San Diego, Calif.

Much of the economy’s growth in 2015 depends on how well the country springs back from the difficult winter and what consumers do with their extra gas money.

Hopes that 2014 will see major improvement on the lackluster 2013 may be a bit optimistic, suggests Chris Kuehl, economic analyst for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, Rockford, Ill.