SMU Data and Models
Steel Mills Continue to Negotiate Flat Rolled Steel Spot Pricing
Written by John Packard
September 27, 2015
According to the respondents to our recent flat rolled steel questionnaire concluded this past week, U.S. and Canadian steel mills continue to entertain adjusting (or negotiating) prices on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels.
The percentage of respondents who reported hot rolled pricing as negotiable dropped from 97 percent to 78 percent. Cold rolled dropped from 88 percent to 71 percent. Galvanized dropped from 87 percent to 81 percent while Galvalume increased from 67 percent to 83 percent.
Bottom line, the mills are willing to talk about pricing on virtually any product.
A side note: The data for both lead times and negotiations comes from only service center and manufacturer respondents. We do not include commentary from the steel mills, trading companies or toll processors in this particular group of questions.
To see an interactive history of our Steel Mill Negotiations data, visit our website here.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in SMU Data and Models
SMU’s September at a glance
SMU’s monthly review provides a summary of important steel market metrics for the previous month. This latest report includes data updated through Sept. 30.
SMU market survey results now available
SMU’s latest steel buyers 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 “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]
SMU survey: Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices remain optimistic
SMU’s Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices remain in positive territory and continue to indicate optimism amongst steel buyers.
SMU survey: More buyers report mills willing to talk price
Over three quarters of the steel buyers participating in our market survey this week reported that mills are negotiable on new order prices
SMU survey: Steel mill lead times remain short
We saw a slight upward movement in some products compared to early September, but nothing substantial enough to signal a shift in the market.