Steel Products
Mill Lead Times & Mill Negotiations: Only Marginal Movement
Written by John Packard
August 22, 2013
Lead times slipped slightly across the board compared to where we saw them at the beginning of August.
The lead times reported by those responding to our Steel Market Update (SMU) steel survey dropped from 4.5 weeks on hot rolled (weighted average) to 4.11 weeks. This is still well above where we were reporting lead times earlier this summer and is slightly higher than what we saw one year ago.
Cold rolled lead times also slipped slightly from 6.35 weeks to 5.96 week, galvanized from 6.42 weeks to 6.18 weeks and Galvalume remained almost the same at 6.75 weeks vs. the 6.18 weeks reported by SMU during the beginning of August.
Mill Negotiations Remain “Firm”
In our most recent steel market survey which ended earlier today (Thursday) we found our respondents as being fairly consistent in reporting mills are mostly ambivalent to the idea of negotiating lower prices with their spot customers. We saw a slight expansion in interest (to negotiate) in cold rolled moving from 30 percent to 42 percent. Galvanized continued to be the weakest product with 43 percent of our respondents reporting some movement by the mills as they negotiated prices over the past few days.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products
US and Canadian rig counts stabilize
US counts continue to hover just above historic lows, while Canadian figures remain comparatively healthy.
Plate market sources critique mill hikes amid current market conditions
Following spot market plate price increase notices issued by domestic mills this past week, participants are contemplating the rationale behind the increases and whether they will stick. Some sources anticipate that current market conditions will shift in November and believe the increases may set a new "pricing floor."
Oregon Steel Mills lifts plate prices by $60/ton
Oregon Steel Mills has joined other producers in announcing a price increase of at least $60 per short ton on steel plate.
CRU: Construction of pilot plant for green steel process starts
Voestalpine and partners have begun building an industrial-scale Hy4Smelt demonstration plant in Linz, Austria, which they hope will become key in the decarbonization of steel.
Rig count increases in the US and in Canada
Oil and gas drilling activity increased this week in the US and Canada for the third consecutive week, according to the latest Baker Hughes rig count data. US counts continue to hover just above historic lows, while Canadian figures remain comparatively healthy.