SMU Comparison Price Indices: Mixed Messages

The two strongest products during the month of January were cold rolled (fully annealed) and plate. Both of these products saw spot price appreciation during the month. Hot rolled was a mixed bag with SMU now holding the lowest average at $665 per ton as of last week. At one point during the month every single one of our steel indexes agreed on hot rolled. It only lasted one week. As you can see by the table below galvanized was a mixed bag with one index having prices rising by $15 per ton while SMU and CRU dropped their prices on the same product. Galvalume prices were slightly lower during the month.