Final Thoughts

We aren’t able to cover all of the results in our newsletter and we are looking for new and better ways of compiling and presenting the data in the future. Those who take the survey have the option to access a Power Point presentation which provides much more data, and in a different format, than what we present in our newsletter. If you are interested in being added to our invitee list and are an active buyer or seller of steel you can contact me at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com to see what is required in order to be added.

During the survey process we found out from the steel mills who responded to the survey that the current order flows were either “normal” (71 percent) or “lower than normal” (29 percent). The steel mill respondents were split on the future direction of steel prices with 57 percent of the opinion prices would move higher from here and 43 percent believing prices would remain the same over the next 30 days.

Trading companies were very comfortable that prices being quoted were at levels where business could be transacted. Of those trading companies responding in last week’s survey 83 percent believed business could be done at the levels being quoted. Even so, 40 percent of the trading companies did report prices as moving higher over the next 30 days.

Moving away from our survey – SMU did some research of our own between Christmas and the New Year holiday with ultra light gauge galvanized buyers – specifically with .012” G30 galvanized buyers from around the U.S.A. We found prices out of India, China and Mexico delivered into the United States were in the very low $40’s.

Our survey results did pick up some weakness in pricing. We will publish new pricing on Tuesday evening. Our new pricing will be based on a combination of the survey results combined with channel checks from our sources on Monday and Tuesday. At this moment our SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to be Neutral.

As always your business is truly appreciated.