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    Actual Steel Price Increases Higher than Announcements Being Made by US Steel Mills

    Written by John Packard


    On Friday, I (John Packard) was the speaker on a conference call hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst, Timna Tanners. This is something that I try to do a couple of times per year to help the financial community and investors in the metals and mining space to better understand the flat rolled steel industry.

    There were a number of questions, both being asked verbally during the conference call as well as through email, about the actual increase in pricing being collected by the domestic steel mills. I related a conversation that I had with a privately held steel service center on Thursday of this past week about the amount of the increases they had taken on galvanized steel purchased from domestic mills. I was told by the head of purchasing at this service center that their base pricing had moved from $22.00/cwt ($440 per ton) to $40.00/cwt ($800 per ton) or $360 per ton.

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