Steel Products
Mill Lead Times Extend Slightly – Mill Negotiations Continue
Written by John Packard
February 8, 2013
Based on the results of this week’s SMU steel market survey, lead times have moved out slightly at the domestic steel mills compared to where they were during the middle of January. We are now seeing hot rolled lead times averaging 3.5 weeks, cold rolled and galvanized at just over 5 weeks and Galvalume at almost 6.5 weeks. With the exception of Galvalume – HR, CR and GI are still well behind where their lead times were at this time last year (see table below and graph at the end of this article).
Even with the domestic mills having hiked prices by $40 to $50 per ton over the past few weeks their sales people continue to negotiate pricing with their customers – according to the results from our survey which concluded this afternoon. The only item where we found any significant drop was hot rolled – from 88 percent to 74 percent – in other words during the middle of January 88 percent of those responding to our survey reported the domestic mills are willing to negotiate hot rolled pricing. This week that number has dropped to 74 percent. As you can see by the graphic below – all of the other flat rolled items continue to have a significant amount of “discussion” associated with the placement of any new orders.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products
Asian HR remains much cheaper than US, EU product
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices were flat this week after declining seven of the last nine weeks. Offshore prices have also eroded in recent weeks, though not nearly as significantly as in the US.
Galv buyers less optimistic about short-term market
“It was a little more of a seller's market as contractors seemed to be protecting themselves against a potential run up in prices," one buyer said.
SMU flat-rolled market survey results now available
SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]
US, offshore CRC prices continue to fall
US cold-rolled (CR) coil prices were down again this week, slipping six weeks in a row and seeing the sharpest drop-off since last July.
Asian HR remains much cheaper than US, EU product
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices fell this week, now down seven of the last eight weeks.