Steel Market Update sources have advised us both California Steel Industries (CSI) and U.S. Steel/Posco (UPI) have “closed” their order book for the month of February and have not yet advised their customers as to their new pricing for the month of March 2011 on hot rolled (CSI), cold rolled and galvanized steel coils.

Customers on the West coast have told SMU their expectations are for prices to move higher for the month of March. The main reasons provided are non-competitive foreign pricing and the domestic mills East of the Rockies are also non-competitive based on the prices being collected East of the Rockies.

Steel Market Update will continue to watch both the East and the West coast markets and will have more information in our SMU newsletter which we publish three times per week.