Analysis
June 3, 2026
HR vs. galvanized price spread widens to near one-year high
Written by Brett Linton
After falling to a multi-year low in March, the premium galvanized coil commands over hot-rolled (HR) coil has widened in recent months. As of June 2, the spread between these two products has risen to a near one-year high of $180 per short ton (st).
Trends by product
SMU’s average HR price increased this week to a three-year high of $1,105/st. Prices have recovered $100/st over the past three months and are $320/st higher than the lows seen last September.
Meanwhile, galvanized (base) prices rose $25/st week-over-week (w/w) to $1,285/st on average. Prices have risen $160/st in the last three months and are up $360/st from the lows seen last October.
Figure 1 shows the pricing relationship between these two products since 2023. Use our Interactive Pricing Tool for more ways to analyze SMU data.
Galvanized premium rising
Currently, galvanized commands a $180/st premium over HR (Figure 2, left). The spread between these products has not been this high since mid-June 2025. It recently fell to a multi-year low of $105/st in February. Before that, we’d have to go back to March 2023 to find similarly low spreads.
Over the past 12 months, the spread has averaged $138/st. This time last year we saw similar spreads around $170-185/st; a year before that it was significantly higher at $270-290/st. Historically, pre-pandemic spreads generally ranged from $85-220/st throughout the 2010s.
Another way to compare these products is to look at the galvanized premium as a percentage rather than a dollar value. The right graph in Figure 2 shows the hot-rolled/galvanized price spread as a percentage of the HR price.
The percentage premium tells a similar but less dramatic story. This week it stood at 16%, having gradually recovered from the low of 10% seen in early March. This rate has averaged 15% over the past 12 months. This time last year it was around 19-22%, while in June 2024 it was considerably higher at 37-44%.
