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    Manufacturers Report Distributor Spot Pricing as Mixed

    Written by Brett Linton


    Balance appears to be the word of the week, well at least for this past week while we were canvassing the flat rolled steel industry during our mid-July survey. Steel Market Update invited slightly more than 600 people representing approximately 590 companies to participate in our survey. Of those responding 44 percent were manufacturing companies (a little lower than normal) and 42 percent were service centers (about normal) with the balance being trading companies (5 percent), steel mills (4 percent), toll processors (3 percent) and suppliers to the industry (2 percent) such as chemical or paint companies.

    During the survey process we first canvass the entire group as a whole regarding on a few subjects and then the survey breaks out the respondents by market segment (as noted above).

    Brett Linton

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