SMU Data and Models

Mill Price Negotiations: Less Flexible Than Beginning of the Month
Written by John Packard
June 18, 2015
As with lead times, our survey respondents are reporting steel mills as slowly regressing and moving away from negotiating flat rolled steel prices. Although we are seeing movement, the percentage of respondents reporting the mills as still willing to negotiate hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume continues to be more than 50 percent.
Hot rolled remained essentially unchanged with 63 percent of the respondents reporting the domestic mills as willing to negotiate HRC pricing.
Cold rolled saw the percentage drop from 75 percent to 52 percent.
Galvanized dropped slightly from 73 percent to 68 percent.
Galvalume remained the same as what we reported at the beginning of June at 60 percent.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in SMU Data and Models

SMU Market Survey Results Now Available
The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members.

UAW Strike Hasn’t Dampened SMU Buyers Sentiment Indices
SMU's Current and Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices both increased this week despite the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike expansion, based on our most recent survey data.
Sheet Lead Times Mixed, Plate Plummets
While lead times for sheet again had mixed movements this week, those for plate collapsed, according to SMU’s most recent market survey.

US Hot Band Now Even Cheaper Than Imported HRC
US hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices fell further relative to imported product this week. Domestic hot band remains cheaper than offshore HRC as US tags continue to sink at a sharper rate than those overseas.

Service Center Shipments and Inventories Report for August
Flat Rolled = 54.1 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 61.2 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled US service center flat-rolled steel inventories eased back in August with stronger shipments. At the end of August, service centers carried 54.1 shipping days of supply, according to adjusted SMU data, down from 56.1 shipping days of supply […]