Analysis
April 9, 2026
Steel market chatter this week
Written by Ethan Bernard
On Monday and Tuesday this week, SMU polled steel buyers on an array of topics, ranging from market prices, demand, and inventories to tariffs, imports, and evolving market events.
One question worth highlighting concerned President Trump’s tariffs. This week’s survey showed 65% of respondents said Trump’s tariffs were not helping their business, and 35% said they were unsure. That means no positive responses.
Below, we are sharing a selection of the individual comments we received, in each buyer’s own words.
Want to share your thoughts? Contact smu@crugroup.com to be included in our market questionnaires.
How do you expect prices to trend over the next three months, and why?
“Down – will not sustain this price.”
“Prices will continue to increase over the next few months but at a slower pace.”
“Level off within the next 45 days.”
“Stable.”
“Stable to slightly up. Imports are coming in.”
“I feel there is enough momentum and lack of domestic competition to continue to see prices increase but not at a steep incline. I expect by July we will see prices level off and begin declining.”
“Upward as demand increases.”
“We still believe we have a bit more runway left, before a pretty significant correction. We don’t think things will go down fast, but we do think it’ll be a decent couple hundred dollars/ton type correction.”
“Discrete plate will edge upward.”
“Pricing will increase due to high energy costs and stable demand.”
Is demand improving, declining or stable, and why?
“Stable. Companies are not investing in capital.”
“Stable – we continue to be selling about what we did in 2025, which wasn’t great.”
“Stable, but could have weakness due to increased costs.”
“Still stable at best.”
“Demand is starting to increase due to lack of supply caused by mills’ performance and lack of imports.”
“Demand seems pretty stable, maybe improving a smidge…? But the craziness abroad certainly doesn’t feel promising.”
“Slow positive trend.”
“Plate demand is improving.”
“Demand is improving from an anemic level.”
“Declining.”
Is inventory moving faster or slower than this time last year?
“Same – not seeing a difference.”
“About the same.”
“It’s about the same. Customers don’t seem to be willing to make big commitments, cautiously waiting to see what is going to happen next.”
“Inventory is moving about the same, but admittedly we are keeping less on hand.”
“Slower.”
“Slower as demand is stable but not increasing as fast as inventories on hand.”
“A little faster.”
“Faster. Demand is actually there.”
“Plate inventory running about the same pace to better.”
Are imports more attractive vs. domestic material? Why or why not?
“More attractive and more imports are being ordered.”
“Imports are starting to become more attractive.”
“No imports.”
“Not attractive due to most of our customers requiring domestic.”
“Import pricing is definitely right there and I know a lot of folks who have bought more and more offshore tons.”
“Plate imports are not attractive for several reasons.”
“No, lead time too long.”
What’s something that’s going on in the market that nobody is talking about?
“Rebuilding of munitions and modern war boats.”
“Internally we’re expecting a pretty significant reversal after Spring Outage Season, and that normally doesn’t bode well for the major SSCs. I guess we’ll see!”
“Late mill deliveries.”
“Scrap rates and export of scrap demand for Turkey.”
