Steel Products
SMU CEO Speaks on Steel Survey, Distributor Inventories, Community Chat Webinars
Written by John Packard
May 13, 2020
We had an exceptional SMU Community Chat Webinar with Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence on Wednesday morning. I am getting nothing but rave reviews of our free webinars, and I encourage you to inform your management and other teammates to register and then tune in at 11 AM ET every Wednesday. Next week (May 20) we will have John Anton of IHS Markit provide us an update on their view of the steel markets for the balance of 2020 and into 2021. The following week, May 27, we will host Barry Zekelman, Chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries. To register for next week’s SMU Community Chat Webinar click here.
This week Steel Market Update conducted one of our flat rolled and plate steel market trends surveys. Based on the responses, lead times have bumped up but only slightly. Lead times this week are similar to lead times seen one year ago when prices were in the mid to upper $500s and moving lower. However, we would be remiss in failing to point out the adjustments that have been made to supply. The integrated mills have downsized their operations, taking hot metal out of the market. Hot rolled lead times averaging 3.2 weeks do not signal pricing strength. Our survey also pointed to continued high levels of price negotiations on all flat rolled products out of the domestic steel mills.
You can find steel pricing and lead time comparisons (HRC only) on our website by going to the “Prices” tab. If you need help in using our pricing tools, please contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Plate customers, please note that plate prices are now part of the menu under our prices tab.
If you would like more details about lead times and negotiations, that information is available to our Premium level members along with all kinds of other data derived from our flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey.
Today, Steel Market Update reported service center inventories/shipments to our flat rolled and plate steel data providers. We saw inventories climb (as expected) due to shipments averaging 30 percent lower during the month of April. Flat rolled inventories now average 3.64 months of supply. This information will be shared with our Premium members, but is not available to our Executive-level members. If you would like information on how to become a Premium subscriber, please contact Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
There are many advantages to being an SMU subscriber. One of the unique ones is we enjoy communicating with our members and we try to answer as many of their questions that come our way as possible. We had one earlier this week about the relationship between oil and steel prices. Ryan Smith, the manager of CRU’s Steel Cost Service, responded with a detailed discussion about oil and its impact on international steel mills’ cost to produce. I hope to be able to share his response with our readers in the coming days.
Our staff, including those who put together our data and newsletters, our Steel 101 instructors, as well as the experts at CRU, which include a large international steel team, economists, data collection and consulting services, our depth of knowledge is second to none.
Our members also receive special status when it comes to SMU Events. This will include discounts for our upcoming SMU Steel Summit Conference at the end of August (whether live or online).
Regarding this year’s conference, we will be making a final decision by June 1 about holding the live event at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 24-26. We have already made the decision to host a virtual conference either live streaming the event at the GICC or providing a totally unique experience for you in your office or home office. More details will be coming over the next few weeks.
We are also reviewing our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshops to see when we will be able to hold our next live event. At this point, the earliest would be in mid-September, but we have not yet made a final determination if that event will be possible due to COVID-19. Stay tuned.
For those of you who are unaware, we have a special SMU Community Chat tab at the top section of our Home Page. If you click on that tab you will find our webinars in the drop down screen. You can register for the next webinar and access past webinar recordings in that area of the website. This is updated once a week. We currently have recordings available for webinars held with: Dr. Chris Kuehl, Bank of America Metals & Mining Analyst Timna Tanners, AGC Economist Ken Simonson, CAR Economist Bernard Swiecki, and Behlen Mfg. CEO Phil Raimondo.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
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