Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Prices Approaching Last Price Increase Numbers

April 27, 2014

Flat rolled steel prices continued to rise for the 6th week (according to SMU HRC average) with the benchmark hot rolled coil price average just below $680 per ton and just a few dollars away from the $685 announced by Nucor and a number of other mills at the beginning of April.

For the first time in a long time all of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update are within $5 per ton of one another when it comes to hot rolled coil.

We are seeing a slightly wider spread when it comes to cold rolled. Galvanized, where we follow CRU and ourselves, as you can see from our table is quite close (.060” G90 is the galvanized benchmark item).

Plate prices have been relatively stationary for the past couple of weeks. This may change with the $40 per ton announcement made by SSAB late last week.

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.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.

Brett Linton

Brett Linton is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update, where he began his career. Linton has been in the steel industry since 2010. He has held roles as a category manager and strategic insights director at Reibus before returning to SMU in 2024. He is a graduate of The University of North Georgia with a degree in Finance and Accounting. Brett can be reached at brett@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-314-0179.