Steel Products Prices North America
SMU Comparison Price Indices: One Moves Higher, Others Wait
Written by John Packard
January 5, 2014
Platts took all of their flat rolled sheet indices higher this past week and they now reference benchmark hot rolled at $685 per ton – $15 per ton higher than Steel Market Update and $17 per ton higher than CRU. With the New Year Holiday sandwiched in the middle of this past week SMU did not capture enough transactions to justify raising steel prices – even though the domestic mills have announced increases just prior to Christmas which call for $700 per ton hot rolled and $810 per ton cold rolled and coated base pricing.
Steel Orbis did not provide new numbers this past week and SteelBenchmarker was not scheduled to release new numbers.
Steel Market Update will conduct our next flat rolled steel market survey beginning on Monday of this week. If you receive an invitation please take a moment to click on the link and respond to our questionnaire.
FOB Points for each index:
SMU: Domestic Mill, East of the Rockies.
CRU: Midwest Mill, East of the Rockies.
SteelBenchmarker: Domestic Mill, East of the Mississippi.
SteelOrbis: Midwest Domestic Mill.
Platts: Within 200-300 mile radius of Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America
Thin demand keeps plate prices hovering at lowest levels since February
Participants in the domestic plate market say spot prices appear to have hit the floor, and they continue to linger there. They say demand for steel remains thin, with plate products no exception.
SMU Price Ranges: HR crawls back to $800/ton
SMU’s HR price stands at $800/st on average, up $5/st from last week. The modest gain came as the low end of our range firmed, and despite the high end of our range declining slightly.
SMU successfully completes IOSCO review
SMU has successfully completed an external review of all our prices. The review has concluded that they algin with principles set by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
Domestic plate prices could heat up despite so-so demand, market sources say
Some sources also speculated that plate could see further price increases thanks to modest but steady demand, lower imports, mill maintenance outages, and end markets less immediately affected by tariff-related disruptions.
SMU Price Ranges: HR holds, galv slips amid competing market narratives
SMU’s sheet and plate prices see-sawed this week as hot-rolled (HR) coil prices held their ground while prices for galvanized product slipped.