Producer Price Indexes of Sheet Steel and Competing Materials

Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out its series of producer price indexes for thousands of goods and materials. The latest release on Friday reported February results. These statistics are a useful way to evaluate any changes in the competitive position of steel against competing materials. See below for the official description of this program. The February report from the BLS began as follows, “Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.1 percent in February, seasonally adjusted. This decline followed advances of 0.2 percent in January and 0.1 percent in December.

On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand moved up 0.9 percent for the 12 months ended in February, the smallest 12-month rise since a 0.9-percent increase in May 2013. In February, the 0.1-percent decrease in final demand prices can be traced to the index for final demand services, which fell 0.3 percent. In contrast, prices for final demand goods advanced 0.4 percent. Within intermediate demand, the index for processed goods climbed 0.7 percent, prices for unprocessed goods jumped 5.7 percent, and the index for services rose 0.2 percent. Overall prices for finished goods declined 0.1 percent in November and 0.2 percent in October. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by producers of intermediate goods rose 0.6 percent in December, and the crude goods index climbed 2.4 percent. On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods increased 1.2 percent in 2013 compared with a 1.4-percent advance in 2012.”