I am in Chicago this evening attending the Metals Industry Boy Scout Dinner. Joining me is Tim Triplett, so please excuse tonight’s issue if it seems a little shorter than normal. The Vietnam circumvention final ruling has been delayed another week. I was speaking to a prospective new customer yesterday and realized as I talked […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices were mixed in what has to be considered yet another quiet week for pricing. Steel buyers have mixed feelings as to where steel prices go from here, with some believing prices have no place to go but up and others looking at the HRC futures market (which is backwardated) […]
SMU’s flat rolled steel Price Momentum Indicator is currently pointing at Neutral meaning sheet steel prices are in transition or have hit a lull. A Neutral reading does not mean flat rolled steel prices will automatically move lower from here just because the previous indication was for higher prices. The injection of the U.S. government […]
The vast majority of companies that buy foreign steel say they will continue to source product from outside the United States despite the Trump administration tariffs. About 88 percent of those responding to last week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire say they will continue to buy foreign, while the other 12 percent say they […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their mixed ways for about the fourth week in a row. Steel Market Update and Platts both saw benchmark hot rolled as up slightly and the two indexes are now $1 per ton apart in their assessment of the HRC market average. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week. […]
Compared to this time last year, flat rolled lead times are highly extended – on all products. Plate lead times, which is not on our graphic, are also highly extended, but we are treating it differently as the domestic mills are on controlled order entry/allocation with their plate customers. Hot rolled lead times are averaging […]
Extended lead times will generally lead to steel mills being stingy about offering “deals” below the company pricing guidelines. Flat rolled steel prices have essentially plateaued. There may be a small number of “deals” out there (is $860 HRC really a “deal?”), but most mills are sticking to their guns. In all four products (hot […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices continue to show signs of stability as the market absorbs the most recent decision on Section 232 exclusions (countries) and awaits decisions about individual product exclusions. Steel Market Update continues to reference our SMU Price Momentum Indicator as being at Neutral, but I want to warn our readers that […]
Yet another mixed week as the flat rolled and plate steel markets wait for the government to decide what to do next… It’s tough to be a steel buyer when the laws of supply and demand are no longer in sync with the actual market. Hot rolled prices were mixed although the spread between Steel […]
“Too many plates spinning right now to try and peg a price direction. The wrong tweet at the wrong time could throw all your planning out the window,” said one manufacturing company to Steel Market Update earlier today, explaining his take on the market. Steel buyers are seeing stability in most products with the possible […]
Flat rolled steel prices were once again “mixed” for this past week. Platts reported hot rolled coil prices as being lower, while their cold rolled, galvanized rose and plate remained the same. Steel Market Update saw HRC prices as being up $10 as was our plate pricing. Cold rolled remained the same, while coated products […]
Based on responses to this week’s Steel Market Update flat rolled market trends questionnaire, mill lead times remain extended, but appear to have stabilized a bit in the past month. Mill lead time, which is the amount of time it takes for the domestic mills to produce a new order taken this week, is one […]
Are steel mills willing to negotiate spot prices on new orders in the current market conditions? For the most part mills are holding firm, but there may be some initials signs of a loosening in price negotiations, according to respondents to this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire. Every two weeks, in a proprietary […]
Flat rolled steel prices appear to have reached a plateau, at least on a temporary basis, according to steel buyers who reported mill spot pricing to Steel Market Update this week. Don’t let our headline fool you or lull you into complacency–steel mills are firm with their steel price offers and there has been very […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices were mixed this past week. Benchmark hot rolled price averages ranged from a low of $854 per ton (SteelBenchmarker) to a high of $882 per ton (Platts) with Steel Market Update reporting our average last week as $870 per ton, unchanged from the week prior. Cold rolled averages ranged […]
Steel Market Update’s new analysis of sheet, plate, long and tubular product imports and their 18 subcategories is still a work in progress, but it offers a timely means to examine the effects of the Section 232 legislation on the market. Table 1 shows total supply to the market in three months through February and […]
Flat rolled steel prices appear to have hit a lull as prices have remained relatively range-bound compared to last week. Steel Market Update spent the past two days canvassing steel buyers at manufacturing companies, distributors, wholesalers and steel mills. We report on what steel buyers had to say to us in a separate article in […]
The pace of flat rolled steel price expansion slowed this past week with hot rolled and cold rolled barely budging off the levels reported for the week ending March 30. Galvanized average pricing rose slightly (+$5) on SMU’s index to $1,106 per ton for .060” G90. Platts took their average up $33 per ton and […]
I’ve been asked my opinion as to which way steel prices will head from here. There seems to be a bit of a lull at the moment that one steel buyer attributed to the mills trying to stave off imports and not appear to be too greedy. Steel buyers are telling me that they will […]
In Q1 2018, steel sheet product imports increased and plate products decreased compared to Q4 2017. Total rolled steel imports increased by 3.6 percent, and sheet products by 0.5 percent, in the three months through March compared to three months through December 2017. Plate products decreased by 9.7 percent on the same basis, according to […]
Based on the latest SMU Flat Rolled and Plate Steel Market Trends Survey, mill lead times on flat rolled steel remain highly extended, close to the levels measured by Steel Market Update in mid-2016, as mills scramble to fill orders on strong demand. Mill lead times, which are the amount of time it takes for […]
Steel Market Update conducted our early April survey earlier this week. One of the key proprietary products produced is how buyers and sellers of flat rolled represent the mill negotiation position. Are steel mills willing to negotiate spot prices on new orders at this time? Buyers responding to this week’s SMU market trends questionnaire reported […]
We are in an unusual situation when it comes to evaluating “spot” pricing. Many active buyers are contract customers and there are very few “sophisticated” buyers actually in the spot market buying flat rolled steel. Plate buyers have told SMU that they are on allocation and there are very few “spot” purchases being made. One […]
All three of the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reported their average prices this past week. The lag of SteelBenchmarker pricing is very evident as they lagged well behind our index as well as that of Platts. Benchmark hot rolled prices averaged $870 per ton, according to SMU and Platts. SteelBenchmarker reported $825 […]
Steel price momentum remained on the upswing in March, but steel buyers appeared slightly less optimistic about their prospects as President Trump’s tariffs and fears of a trade war weighed on many minds. The price of benchmark hot roll hit $870 per ton in late March, up $50 per ton from the beginning of the […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices moved higher over the past seven days. Steel buyers reported the domestic and Canadian steel mills as being “firm” with their price offers. Even so, steel buyers advised Steel Market Update that even with many mills allocating tonnage or, working on a controlled order entry basis, that they were […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices continued their march higher, albeit at a more subdued pace compared to the past few weeks. Today, we are going to compare the end of the week flat rolled steel indices provided by Steel Market Update and Platts. SteelBenchmarker did not produce steel prices this week as they only […]
The dollar has been trading in a range for eight weeks and on April 13 had the same value as it did on Feb. 14. Since its recent peak on Jan. 3, 2017, the dollar has weakened by 8.9 percent and in 2018 is down by 1.0 percent through April 13. Please see the end […]
Mill lead times on flat rolled steel continue to inch out as supplies tighten and the mills scramble to fill orders. One of the key indicators tracked by Steel Market Update, lead times reflect the activity at the mills and the order levels they are seeing from their customers. SMU’s latest data indicates that the […]
With President Trump’s steel tariff set to kick in on Friday, domestic steelmakers remain in a strong pricing position. Buyers responding to this week’s SMU market trends questionnaire reported most mills unwilling to bend much when it comes to steel product prices, except in some cases for large orders. By market segment, 91 percent of […]