• Skip to main content

    Analysis

    February 26, 2023

    Final Thoughts

    Sometimes it’s hard to know who your friends are. What starts offs as a simple disagreement escalates. Things can soon spin out of control. And that’s just for people. When dealing with nation states like the US and Mexico, things get a bit more complex, and the stakes a whole lot higher.

    gearsAt the beginning of February, Ternium Mexico president César A. Jiménez was touting the benefits of “friend-shoring” at SMU’s Tampa Steel Conference. He said that the USMCA area is perhaps the most stable and balanced in terms of supply/demand in steel production.

    Latest in Analysis

    SMU Survey: Current Buyers’ Sentiment rises slightly as Future Sentiment dips

    SMU’s Current Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Index ticked up slightly this week, while Future Sentiment fell, according to our latest market survey. Every two weeks, SMU polls thousands of steel-industry executives, asking them to rate their companies’ chances of success today and also three to six months down the road. We use their responses to calculate our proprietary Current and Future Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices, measures tracked since 2008.

    galvalume steel coil

    SMU Survey: Mill willingness to negotiate price at lowest levels since 2021

    The majority of steel buyers responding to our latest market survey reported that mills continue to hold a firm grip on prices. The share of buyers reporting that mills were negotiable fell this week to the lowest rate seen in over five years. Every two weeks, SMU surveys service center and manufacturer buyers asking if mills are negotiable on new spot sheet and plate orders. In this week’s survey, just 3% of respondents said mills were willing to talk price to secure an order (Figure 1). This is down 11 percentage points from our mid-October survey.