Spot Check of Mill Lead Times

We are beginning to see the terminology “inquire” being used by a number of mills. Inquire generally means that the order books are full during a certain time frame and the mill may be controlling order entry to make sure their contract customers get their orders and, in the case of Steel Dynamics, to keep their lead times from extending too far out.

Steel buyers should contact their steel mill inside support people to determine exactly when you can anticipate your order being produced by that mill.

NLMK USA

NLMK USA advised their customers that hot rolled lead times for spot business are out to the week of February 15th (2-3 weeks) at both their Farrell, PA and Portage, IN facilities. The mill has been running about two to three weeks over the past few weeks.

Cold rolled (fully processed) spot business is on an “inquiry” only basis while contract tonnage was being quoted the week of March 21st (7-8 weeks).  In late December CR fully processed spot was being quoted at 7 weeks. By mid-January the word “inquiry” was added and contract tonnage was being quoted at 8 weeks.

Galvanized spot business is also on an “inquiry” only basis with contract tonnage being quoted the week of March 21st (7-8 weeks). In late December galvanized spot was being quoted at 7-8 weeks. By mid-January the word “inquiry” was added to spot while contract tons were being quoted at 8-9 weeks.

AK Steel

AK Steel has been fairly vocal that they are not taking much spot business – especially on hot rolled coil. We understand that they are quoting HRC spot at a $24.50/cwt base ($490 per ton) but we have not yet found a customer who is a buyer at that price. You have to remember that AK Steel has taken down the hot end at Ashland which impacts their ability to make steel.

Hot rolled is being quoted the week of April 11th (11 weeks). As of January 15th AK was advising their customers that HRC was 10 weeks.

Fully processed cold rolled is being quoted the week of April 18th (12 weeks). As of January 15th AK was advising their customers CRC was the week of April 11th (13 weeks).

Galvanized from a hot rolled substrate is on an “inquire” basis while cold rolled GI is being quoted the week of April 11th (11 weeks). As of January 15th galvanized spot lead times were being quoted as being out to the week of April 11th (13 weeks).

Steel Dynamics: Butler

One of SDI Butler customers advised us that their hot rolled lead times were being quoted earlier this week as being the week of February 15th (2-3 weeks) while all other items were on an inquire only basis or closed awaiting the mill to open the next month’s order book.

Steel Dynamics: Columbus

Hot Rolled the week ending February 27th (3-4 weeks).

Cold Rolled fully processed is the week ending March 19th (6-7 weeks).

Galvanized (HR and CR base) the week ending March 5th (4-5 weeks).

The Techs (owned by Steel Dynamics):

MetalTech: HR base galvanized the week of March 27th (8-9 weeks).  CR base galvanized: inquire only. On the 26th of January MetalTech was quoting both products as of the week of March 20th (8-9 weeks). The inquire only was added just this week to cold rolled galvanized.

GalvTech: Inquire only. As of the 26th of January GalvTech was quoting the week of March 13th (7-8 weeks). The inquire only note was added as of this week.

NextTech: Inquire only. NextTech was also quoting the week of March 13th (7-8 weeks) as of the 26th of January. Their inquire only note was added as of this week.

Nucor Berkeley

Hot rolled lead times are being quoted the week ending March 12th (up to 54”) and March 19th (over 54”) which is 5-6 weeks up to 54” and 6-7 weeks on wider than 54”. On the 12th of January lead times on HRC were being quoted at 4-5 weeks up to 54” and 5-6 weeks over 54”.

Cold rolled lead times are being quoted the week ending March 26th (up to 54”) which is 7-8 weeks and over 54” is the following week or 8-9 weeks out. On January 12th CRC lead times were out 7-8 weeks up to 54” and 8-9 weeks over 54”.

Galvanized lead times are being quoted at 8-9 weeks (week ending November 2nd) for up to 54” and one week longer for over 54” in width. As of January 12th lead times were reported to be 6-7 weeks up to 54” and 7-8 weeks over 54”.

CSN (Terre Haute, IN)

We learned from CSN that their galvanized lead times we out to the 2nd week of March (5-6 weeks). We were told that the mill was holding firm at $28.00/cwt base price levels which has slowed their order intake somewhat.