Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Bottoms Up...?

Written by John Packard

October 29, 2017

Flat rolled steel prices were seen as bouncing higher, according to the Platts steel indices. Platts had hot rolled up $22 per ton to $613.75 (we rounded it to $614), while SteelBenchmarker was down $10 to $600 per ton. Steel Market Update reported HRC down $5 to $580 per ton.

We saw a similar change in cold rolled with Platts taking their numbers up $16 per ton to $806.50 (we rounded to $807 per ton), with SMU down $25 to $755 per ton and SteelBenchmarker down $16 to $765 per ton.

Galvanized and Galvalume were seen as not changing last week compared to the prior week.

Plate was mixed with Platts down $12 per ton to $612.50 (rounded to $613) and SteelBenchmarker was up $15 to $684 per ton. Both of those indices are FOB Mill. SMU saw no change as we remained at $650 per ton freight prepaid (delivered) to the end customer.

The expectation is for numbers to move higher from here due to the price increases announced by the domestic mills. Steel Market Update, however, has not adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Higher from Neutral as we want to see what the respondents to our early November survey have to say. That survey will begin tomorrow (Monday), and we will have a much better feel for Momentum by the end of the day.

SMU Note: Galvanized prices include $78 in extras for a .060″ G90 product. Galvalume prices include $291 in extras for a .0142” AZ50 Grade 80 product.

FOB points for each index:

SMU: Domestic Mill, East of the Rockies.
SteelBenchmarker: Domestic Mill, East of the Mississippi.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.

Plate price FOB points are different for each of the indexes:

SMU: FOB Delivered to the Customer (includes freight)
Platts: FOB Southeastern Mill (does not include freight)

John Packard

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