Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted a flat rolled steel market survey during the first three days of this week. This was our second survey for the month of March and it produced some interesting results. We discussed the survey and what we are discovering in our newsletter - Steel Market Update – which was published on Thursday evening.

First, it is important to understand the size and scope of our survey. We invite just over 700 companies to participate in our survey. We have intentionally looked at inviting active buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel products. This includes hot roll, cold roll, galvanized and Galvalume as well as plate products.

The survey provides us data from which we derive our proprietary SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index which was down 6 points but still at a very optimistic level of +39. We will publish more about our Sentiment Index on our Blog on Friday morning.

The key item everyone is watching right now is steel pricing. Are the latest flat rolled price increases which range from $20-$50 per ton going to “stick” (be collected) in the North American market? Our survey respondents were asked that and a number of other questions and the results were quite interesting.

Recently, Steel Market Update purchased the assets of Steel Reality. One of those assets was their Steel Reality Momentum Meter (not to be confused with our SMU Price Momentum Indicator). The latest reading is still “negative” but is rising which supports our Price Momentum Indicator.

For those who are involved in the flat rolled steel industry and would like to stay in touch with the North American market – and the driving forces behind prices here – you may want to consider registering for a free trial of our newsletter. We publish Steel Market Update three times per week and it is full of interesting articles. Here are other articles (other than what we discussed above) you might find of interest:

Every Thursday we discuss the hot rolled futures markets and the forward curve. We have an article from one of our sources in Asia about the Chinese market. A number of important economic indicators were written about: AIA Billings Index, Canadian Construction Spending, Existing Home Sales, February World Steel Production Data.

We also have articles on the testimony by ArcelorMittal in front of the Congressional Steel Caucus on Thursday morning regarding infrastructure, we have an article about the National Coil Coating Association and a little history on the prepainted steel market and we discuss one of our workshops – Steel 101 and we begin to answer the questions what is in it for you and your company.

If you would like to become a trial member you can do so by registering on our website: www.steelmarketupdate.com or by clicking on the button just below this blog post. Better yet, we would love to have you as an annual member which you can do on our website as well and we have another button below this blog post for you as well.