Tag: Lead Times

Galvanized steel buyers and distributors expect tightening supply and rising price pressure to last into summer.

SMU released its latest steel market survey results on Friday. The main takeaway: the stronger for longer narrative is still very much in the house.

Sources told SMU they’ve begun considering whether US imports of sheet might benefit the overall market.

SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

SMU Survey: Sheet and plate lead times remain extended, according to buyers responding to our latest market survey.

The current rally in sheet prices has lasted more than seven months, something without recent precedent. Unless your definition of recent includes the snapback in demand following the pandemic.

Sheet and plate prices remained on an upward trend as industry sources increasingly asked whether improved demand might be driving the market as much as limited supply.

SMU’s Mill Order Index (MOI) recovered in March, gaining some momentum after a marginal decline in February.

SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

Steel mill lead times continue to hold at or near multi-year highs for both sheet and plate products, territory they have been in two months.

Recent conversations with plate market participants across the US revealed a wide range of experiences contingent on a variety of factors.  

According to the latest findings from SMU’s survey, more respondents answered that President Trump’s tariff policies have been helpful to their businesses than in the prior survey. 

Factors like fluctuating demand, import availability, domestic product lead times, fuel surcharges, and end-user consumption left plate sources feeling unsettled.  

Participants in the hot- and cold-rolled coils market are optimistic about the market's health.

MU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

Service centers held only 2.24 months of supply (49.3 days of supply) of sheet products in March, according to our latest figures. If you check our archives, you’ll see that's the lowest sheet inventories we’ve seen since June 2021 – which was hardly a bad year for steel.

Steel mill lead times remained elevated this week, according to buyers responding to our latest market survey.

Participants in the galvanized steel market remain encouraged by strengthening product prices, even as increases unfold at a subdued pace.  

Sheet market participants said they expect hot-rolled coil prices to continue to rise. A Midwest service center source said some mills are not taking spot orders. And even on the contract side, certain mills are “keeping customers at the ‘middle’ of their contract buys to help get lead-times back into shape,” he said. That’s a […]

Nucor plans to increase its list price for hot-rolled (HR) coil to $1,040 per short ton (st), up $5/st from last week.

Steel mill production times for sheet and plate products remain at or near multi-year highs, according to buyers responding to our latest market survey.

Spot market participants worry that limited availability for certain grades of domestically produced plate will extend lead times even further.  

SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

AMU's March survey results show lead times remaining extended as supply tightness persists, even as import competitiveness declines and logistics costs increase.

SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

As spot prices for hot- and cold-rolled coils edge higher, mill capacity utilization rates hover below 80%, raising concern among some market participants.  

Steel mill lead times extended to multi-year highs on both sheet and plate products this week.

The US steel market is already characterized by high prices and tight supplies, and I wouldn't be surprised if prices move higher and supplies get even tighter – at least in the short term.

Domestic plate market participants expressed confidence in the overall improvement of market conditions this week.  

Prices are moving up and lead times moving. And most people expect them to continue to do so for a little while longer, according to our latest survey results. But there is one big wildcard: the Iran war.