Steel Products Prices North America
December 8, 2013
Flat Rolled Steel Contract Negotiations – The Difference a Month Makes
Written by John Packard
One month ago the domestic steel mills and their manufacturing and service center contract customers were locked in a battle over where pricing would be beginning in January 2014 with many mills firming opposed to the negotiated CRU minus and buckets deal made common over the past couple of years.
When we polled our respondents in our flat rolled steel market analysis at the beginning of November we found both segments of the industry struggling to get their deals done for 2014. As you can see from the graphics shown as part of this report, 59 percent of the service centers and 66 percent of the manufacturers had not come to conclusion on their contracts in early November. By the time we got to the first week of December our analysis found a total reversal with 73 percent of distributors and 66 percent of manufacturing companies reporting their 2014 contracts as being done.
