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    May 10, 2015

    Steel Mill Negotiations Being Impacted by Longer Lead Times

    Written by John Packard

    The domestic steel mills are still willing to negotiate according to the majority of last week SMU flat rolled steel market survey respondents. However, for the first time in many months we are seeing a break in the “tell me what it’s going to take” negotiating tactic and more of the “here is our bottom, we can’t go lower than that” philosophy.

    Going back to last year, we have been reporting the vast majority of our survey respondents (90-100 percent) as saying the domestic mills pricing was “negotiable” for new orders to be placed during the week we were conducting the survey.

    John Packard

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