Steel Products Prices North America

November 4, 2013
Contract Negotiations Creating Challenges for Mills & Their Customers
Written by John Packard
The combination of higher spot prices for flat rolled steel and adjustments to contract negotiations has caused some steel buyers to seek alternatives to their normal domestic source of supply. Steel Market Update is beginning to get confirmations from both manufacturing companies and service centers of larger foreign tonnage purchases being made for 1st and early 2nd Quarter 2014 deliveries.
There is no way of knowing if the tonnages being purchased will materially affect the amount of orders to be placed on the domestic mills but, our assumption is, if the trend continues, the domestic mills will have issues arising with their order books by the time we reach late January and into early February lead times.


