SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Bi-Polar

Steel Market Update spent an extraordinary amount of time on today’s price ranges and averages. There has been a lot written recently about demand supporting prices and the lack of supply supporting prices. However, the deeper we dug the more questions we began to ask about what is real and what is a little murky. We are finding the market a bit “bi-polar” to quote one of the service centers with whom we communicated with today.

On the surface it would appear that the domestic steel mills have extended lead times. We heard of hot rolled out into August and in one case September. At the same time we noticed one of the Nucor mills with quoted lead times at just two weeks.

Brett Linton

Brett Linton is a digital operations 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.