Prices
September 7, 2017
AK Steel Announces New $30 Price Increase
Written by John Packard
Late yesterday (Sept. 6), AK Steel announced a new $30 per ton flat rolled price increase. AK Steel last announced a flat rolled price increase three weeks ago when on Aug. 16 the steel mill raised prices by $30 per ton.
So far this year, AK Steel has made seven price increase announcements totaling $215 per ton ($10.75/cwt).
When asked about the potential for price increases sticking, a wholesaler told us, “Inventories are OK and lead times are short. The increase might drum up some orders in light of the storm, but that is all.”
The head of commercial for one of the domestic steel mills, when asked about the possibility of prices moving higher, told SMU, “My sales guys are not feeling too much love yet.” He went to say, “I feel confident still on increases [being collected] in the U.S. market.”
An executive from a large service center told us that, in his opinion, the chances of higher prices were “low” right now. He said he considers service center inventories as being in “low oversupply” and he feels inventories could increase over the next 60 days “due to the lag effect of import arrival/consumption.” He recommended that the domestic mills “pull back now on production in order to keep the supply/demand relationship closer.”
