Hot Rolled and Galvanized Price Spread Declining

SMU’s HRC price averaged $990 per ton as of Tuesday, May 30, unchanged from the previous week and down 14.7% from the highest level seen so far this year of $1,160 per ton during the week of April 11.

Our latest galvanized price averaged $1,100 per ton on Tuesday, also unchanged from the week prior but down 18.5% from this year’s peak of $1,350 per ton during the weeks of April 11 and April 18.

The galvanized price premium over hot rolled averaged $175 per ton this week and is highlighted in Figure 2. That’s the lowest the premium has been since mid-March.

The recent peak in the premium was during the week of April 14 when it hit $225 per ton. The premium had previously not been that high since late-November.

In an attempt to paint a clearer comparison against historical pricing data, the galvanized premium over hot rolled as a percentage of HRC prices is shown in Figure 3.

This week, the premium stands at 18%. This is unchanged since late April. The highest premium so far this year was during the first week of the year when it stood at 29%. It plummeted to as low as 9% during the week of March 7.

By Laura Miller, laura@steelmarketupdate.com