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    Analysis

    April 15, 2015

    Final Thoughts

    Written by John Packard

    As the publisher of Steel Market Update I get a lot of questions on a daily basis from readers and those who come across our website. Usually its about a piece of data or something having to do with one of our workshops. I got a question yesterday from someone who wanted to know what was the lowest average monthly price for hot rolled during the past 30 years (1985-2015)? Since SMU did not exist as a company 30 years ago I did some research and found the answer to be $205 per ton ($10.25/cwt) in November 2001. If you remember back to that point in time, this was when a number of steel mills were about to go out of business.

    I did a little more research and found out that 2001 had the lowest average annual selling price for hot rolled coil going back to 1980 which was the earliest I could find data (USGS). The yearly average was $227 per ton ($11.35/cwt).

    John Packard

    Read more from John Packard

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    SMU’s November ferrous scrap market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the Pricing and Analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for Ferrous Scrap Survey results. Past scrap survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results or if your company would like to have your voice heard in our future surveys, contact smu@crugroup.com.

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