Steel Products Prices North America
September 14, 2014
Sheet Products Expanding Strongly But Domestic Mills Participation Level is Not
Written by Peter Wright
Apparent supply is defined as domestic mill shipments to domestic locations plus imports. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU. The three month moving average (3MMA) of the total tonnage of sheet and strip supply in the period May through July was 4,942,917 tons, up by 14.8 percent from the same period last year and by 11.0 percent from the same period in 2012.
Table 1 shows the performance by product over three, twelve and twenty four month periods. In three months through July, supply advanced by 5.0 percent compared to three months through April. The only product having negative growth over any of the time periods considered was electro galvanized which contracted by 2.4 percent in three months through July compared to three months through April. Year over year hot band grew by 11.8 percent, cold rolled by 19.4 percent and HGD by 17.4 percent.
