Service Center Inventories
SMU surveys key data providers each month to gather the latest information on steel sheet and plate inventories.
An array of proprietary products
Explore our proprietary steel market insights. Key features include service center inventories, flat rolled lead times, steel buyers’ sentiment indices, mill negotiation rates, and more. Access everything you need to track market momentum and make informed decisions
Survey derived insights
Access SMU’s proprietary mill lead times, negotiation rates, steel buyers’ sentiment indices, and more. The data comes from SMU’s surveys, which have been helping our subscribers keep their finger on the pulse of the steel market for more than a decade
Service center inventory and shipment data
Stay on top of the sheet and plate markets with SMU’s monthly service center shipment and inventory reports. When you know how you stack up against your peers, you can better manage your own stocks
Flat-Rolled Lead Times
Active steel buyers provide sheet and plate mill lead times. Members can track pricing trends and explore historical data.
Steel Buyers’ Sentiment
Track how steel buyers and sellers feel about their company’s prospects today and in the next 3-6 months.
Mill Spot Price Negotiations
We survey active steel buyers on pricing plans for domestic sheet and plate; results reveal shifting spot trends.
Mill Order Index
Monitor service center purchasing with our inventory-based insight into demand momentum and lead-time trends.
Steel Demand Index
Derived from the market surveys SMU conducts every other week, the Steel Demand Index is a diffusion index and a statistical tool to measure the breadth of change across our overall demand data series. It effectively helps identify widespread demand trends or turning points. An index score above 50 indicates components are increasing more than […]
Latest news
Leibowitz: Steel producers need imports too—especially of pig iron
Downstream consumers of steel account for many times the employment in steel production. Yet the tariff manufacturers in the federal government have paid scant attention to the needs of most manufacturers.
US steel exports stabilized in May at low levels
Steel exports eased 1% in May and remain significantly lower than trade of previous years.
Aluminum Dynamics sets Mississippi site for relocated recycled slab center
Aluminum Dynamics plans to invest more than $200 million to develop a recycled slab center in Lowndes County, Miss., establishing the permanent location for a project relocated from Arizona earlier this year.
Oil and gas rig counts rise in US and Canada
Drilling activity ticked higher this week in both the US and Canada, according to recently released rig count data from Baker Hughes.
SMU Steel Summit 2026: Who’s driving change—and what’s to come?
We’re just a few days away from initiating an official 30-day countdown until SMU Steel Summit 2026 in Atlanta.
Liberty Steel temporarily furloughs workers at Illinois wire rod mill
Liberty Steel workers at its Bartonville, Ill., facility face furloughs after an industry downturn, according to a media report.
HR buyers foresee bullish market through the second half of 2026
Some hot-rolled coil market participants said they’re optimistic that the market will remain strong throughout the rest of the year.
Orion Steel taps Ptacek as president
Orion Steel has appointed Todd Ptacek as its new president.
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