SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment at Highest Level Recorded
Apr / 19 / 2010 - SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment at Highest Level Recorded
Our Steel Market Update Steel Buyers Sentiment Meter Reading is +4.3
As we worked on our Power Point presentation from last week;s Market Survey results (now posted online), we noticed changes to our Sentiment measurement and when recalculated we found for the first time our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment reading is in positive – or optimistic – territory with a reading of +4.3 and our SMU Future Sentiment reading improved to +33.4. It’s been a long 18 months since we began measuring Sentiment – and an even longer time before our buyers and sellers of steel have been able to acknowledge a peek of sunshine is on their business horizons.
For those who are interested – our SMU indexes caught the first change in momentum the first week of June 2009 when prices stopped falling and started heading higher. Note our “current” Sentiment index improved by over 9 points that week – looking at the Future Sentiment graph the following week was the first time we went into “optimistic” territory.
The next cycle change occurred in late September (29th) and you can clearly see the results of the change in both indexes when we measured Sentiment in the middle of October.
The last cycle change to date was the first week of December (2nd) and you can clearly see the changes in Sentiment during that time period as the Futures Sentiment graph moved into “optimistic” territory and has not slipped back since then.
About the SMU Buyers Sentiment Index
Since November 2008 Steel Market Update has been measuring what we call “Buyers Sentiment”. Essentially, we are measuring responses from steel buyers; sales people and a small number of trading companies, toll processors and steel mills, regarding their attitudes about their company’s existing business conditions. We also ask questions as to their attitudes regarding projected future business conditions – which we call Future Buyers Sentiment.
Each is measured and plotted on a meter (shown on the Home Page) with “0” being the mean or average – which is the point where attitudes are in the “Fair” range. If Buyers Sentiment is optimistic the range will be measured on the plus side with +100% being the most positive position possible. If Sentiment is negative the measurement will be on the negative side with a negative -100% being the most pessimistic position possible.
