Price Increase vs. Fair Value: Debate Continues

In our last issue of Steel Market Update we published an article regarding the latest round of price increases and how those responding to this week’s steel survey felt regarding the potential success of this increase versus the one announced six weeks earlier. Our survey was finding 60 percent of those responding to the survey did not feel the most recent increase stood a better chance of having some or all of the increase collected than the one announced in January.

We received a number of comments similar to this one which was made by a trading company about the domestic steel mills, “$50 was too high and demand has not changed. Same old story USS & ArcelorMittal are operating too many blast furnaces for the demand. I’m too dumb to get out of the steel business but even I can figure out that too much supply and not enough demand = lower prices.”