Sheet Buyers Find Mills More Willing to Talk Price, Plate Buyers Less

Every two weeks, SMU asks steel buyers whether domestic mills are willing to negotiate lower spot pricing on new orders. This week, 41% of steel buyers (Figure 1) across both sheet and plate markets reported mills were willing to negotiate lower prices on new orders, rising from 24% two weeks earlier. It last was above 40% in the middle of February.

Figure 2 below shows negotiation rates by product. Of the additional producuts surveyed by SMU, hot rolled rose 20 percentage points to 46% of respondents saying mills were willing to negotiate lower prices vs. the last market check, while cold rolled jumped 19 percentage points to 38%. However, both plate and Galvalume had zero percent of those surveyed saying mills were open to talk price this week, falling 8% and 50%, respectively, in the same comparison. Recall that the Galvalume market is more volatile as there are fewer participants.

Note: SMU surveys active steel buyers every other week to gauge the willingness of their steel suppliers to negotiate pricing. The results reflect current steel demand and changing spot pricing trends. SMU provides our members with a number of ways to interact with current and historical data. To see an interactive history of our Steel Mill Negotiations data, visit our website here.

By Ethan Bernard, ethan@steelmarketupdate.com