Steel Products
SMU Survey: New Foreign Orders in Decline
Written by John Packard
February 25, 2013
Something to make the domestic mills a wee bit happier – but they won’t see the results for a few months. According to the results from last week’s survey, both manufacturing companies and service centers reported the lowest percentage of interest in placing foreign steel orders since we began asking the question. For manufacturing companies, almost half of which reported interest or actually placing foreign steel orders back in October (48 percent the first week of October 2012), this last week, 17 percent this last week claimed to have entered new foreign orders for future delivery. Service centers which peaked at 27 percent the first week of November fell to 11 percent this past week.
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.