Final Thoughts

October 16, 2013

Steel Market Update saw a letter from Majestic Steel to their customers publically announcing a price increase. Majestic, which is well known as a supplier of coated products to the HVAC and construction industries, told their customers that the price increase is due to cold rolled base prices reaching as high as $39.50/cwt and $40.50/cwt on hot-dipped galvanized. The exact amounts of the increases were not published as they varied depending on industry, item, location and previously quoted pricing levels.

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Our articles on the on-going contract negotiations have struck a nerve with many readers. Over the past couple of days I have had conversations with a few large manufacturing companies who view the past and the present through a different lens than I have with my mill, service center and trading company background. I will spend more time on the subject but I would like to pose the question which was presented to me by a couple end users: What is a fair and/or reasonable price difference between a Tier 1 buyer and that of their smaller competitors? For that matter what makes a company a Tier 1 buyer vs. being Tier 2 or 3? Please send your comments to: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com

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