SMU Data and Models
January 8, 2015
SMU Survey: Steel Mills Willing to Negotiate Flat Rolled Steel Prices
Written by John Packard
The previous article about steel mill lead times being one week shorter than what we saw one year ago set the stage for what we are seeing when it comes to mill negotiations. Our survey respondents almost unanimously reported the domestic mills as willing to negotiate pricing on all flat rolled products.
We had 97 percent of our hot rolled respondents reporting the mills as willing to negotiate. It was 83 percent one month ago and 68 percent at the beginning of November. One year ago was the peak of the “up” cycle when only 35 percent of the respondents reported the domestic mills as willing to negotiate pricing (this popped up to 63 percent two weeks later).
