Steel Products Prices North America
December 17, 2013
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Bouncing Around the Peak or Preparing for Another Run?
Written by John Packard
U.S. Steel announced a price increase on Monday and the market appears to be cautiously optimistic as we enter the end of 2013 and look out into the New Year. The announcement itself was termed a “non-event” by one of the construction related steel mills with whom we spoke this afternoon as increases had previously been announced by Severstal and AK Steel in November and were left flapping in the wind. Flat rolled steel prices (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume) have stalled over the past few weeks.
There seems to be two distinct camps within the steel industry right now. There are the fully integrated mills (ArcelorMittal, US Steel, AK Steel, Severstal Dearborn) whose automotive business continues to dominate their mostly full order books. Then there are the construction mills – especially the conversion mills who have to be much more aggressive in their pricing than their integrated brethren.
