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    September 8, 2015

    Service Center Spot Price Offers Beginning to Drop

    Written by John Packard

    Last week Steel Market Update conducted our early September flat rolled steel market analysis. One of the areas we watch very closely is how are distributors handling spot flat rolled steel purchase prices to their manufacturing customers? We have found that as service center spot prices weaken, so do mill prices until they reach the point of “capitulation” – the point where almost all spot prices are falling and there has been enough pain and trauma within the industry which provides a spark for the mills to raise prices.

    We saw the service centers reach the point of capitulation (which we have defined as 75 percent or more of the distributors reporting their company as lowering spot flat rolled pricing.

    John Packard

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