Final Thoughts

The way our market surveys work is we invite approximately 600 companies to participate. Each individual receives and email invitation with a link to the survey which is hosted on SurveyMonkey.com. The first few questions are posed to the entire group. We asked questions related to our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, general demand and time sensitive industry questions. From there they are sent to separate industry segment specific surveys.

We do have a number of steel mills participating in our surveys. The number of specific individuals is relatively small – any one survey could have as few as five mill people to as many as a dozen. We do not ask the mills for specific pricing or other questions which would be inappropriate. We do ask them for their opinions on subjects such as: Are you concerned that current flat rolled steel prices will attract foreign steel back into the market? Our mill respondents were unanimous (100 percent) reporting that they were concerned. We also asked what direction steel prices will be headed over the next 30 days? On this we received a split decision: 60 percent reported sideways and 40 percent reported higher.