Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Comparison Price Indices: Has the Price Turn Begun?
Written by John Packard
March 23, 2014
Has the flat rolled steel price turn already begun? According to Platts it has, as they moved both hot rolled pricing and cold rolled pricing higher on their index during the later part of the week. Both CRU and SMU reported flat rolled steel prices earlier in the week as either flat or lower than the previous week.
SMU was with a number of owners of flat rolled service centers at the later stages of this past week and did not find evidence of a consistent, across the board move higher by all of the domestic mills. One executive commented to SMU that negotiations continue if there was tonnage actually being bought.
SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week as they only report numbers twice per month.
SMU Price Momentum Indicator was adjusted to Neutral from Lower on Tuesday of this past week. We will continue with our Neutral opinion until we gather clear signs of prices moving in one direction or another.
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: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America

HRC vs. prime scrap spread widens in June
The price spread between HRC and prime scrap widened in June.

SMU price ranges: Steel prices rise in response to tariffs
Steel prices climbed for a second straight week across all five sheet and plate products tracked by SMU.

Nucor lifts list price for spot HRC by $20/ton
The $20/short ton increase applies to all of the steelmaker’s sheet mills, including West Coast joint-venture subsidiary CSI.

Nucor pauses month-long slide in weekly HR price
Nucor halted a four-week decline in its spot price for hot-rolled coil this week, maintaining its weekly consumer spot price (CSP) at $870/st.

Nucor lowers HRC by $10/ton in fourth straight cut
Nucor has lowered its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled coil by $10 per short ton (st), marking the fourth consecutive weekly decrease.