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    Analysis

    Final Thoughts

    Written by John Packard


    This evening’s issue is a bit different than most Sunday evenings. With the Thanksgiving Holiday and most steel-related businesses being closed on Friday the amount of direct news was limited. We do have a couple of articles about new home sales. oil rigs and durable goods but, I spent a good portion of my 5 hour flight from LAX to Fort Lauderdale reviewing the results of our flat rolled steel market trends survey which we just completed on Wednesday. I want to share some of the data with our Executive level members that our Premium level members get twice every month as part of their membership. With the year coming to a close I hope by sharing some of the Premium benefits with all of our Executive level customers that you may want to budget for an upgrade to Premium level membership for 2017.

    As I mentioned earlier in one of the Premium level articles shared today, we conduct our flat rolled market trends analysis twice per month, at the beginning and then again during the middle of the month. We invite almost 600 people representing approximately 550 different companies. We place a heavy emphasis on those in the manufacturing and service center/wholesaler segments of the industry. Combined these two groups make up close to 90 percent of the total respondents. In any one survey we receive 100 to as many as 150 responses.

    Latest in Analysis

    Lead times extended deeper in 2027, some see no availability until late Feb

    Lead times for sheet and plate products continue to extend in a US steel market still in the grip of a historic supply squeeze, according to the latest SMU steel market survey data. Average lead times now extend into late January 2027, with some mills not quoting availability until mid/late February. Lead times for all sheet products except Galvalume stand at their highest point since the post-Covid demand snapback in 2021.

    SMU flat-rolled market survey results now available

    The results of the latest Steel Market Update (SMU) flat-rolled market survey are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in, look under the Data tab for Market Reports, and there you will find the Flat-Rolled Survey Results section. Previous survey results are also available on that page. If you need help accessing these results, or if your company would like to have your voice heard in our future surveys, contact smu@crugroup.com.

    CRU: Futures contract reaches record open interest as prices rise

    Open interest on CME Group’s hot-rolled (HR) coil futures contract typically builds throughout the month before dropping at the end of the month alongside contract settlement. Analysis in this report is based on an early month view of this open interest as well as prices. Notably, open interest for the HR coil contract is currently at a record high of 849,240 short tons (st) or 42,462 contracts.  Open interest is up 13.8% m/m and 66% higher from the 511,480 st of open interest a year ago.