Steel Products Prices North America
January 13, 2015
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Big Move Lower
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled steel prices continued to drop this week as the domestic steel mills struggled with holes in their order books due to growing inventories at the service centers, a sharp drop off in pipe and tube orders associated with the energy markets, and the continued flow of imported steel (which is part of the growing inventories story at the distributors).
Based on the data we received from steel buyers over the past few days, we have seen the benchmark hot rolled prices plummet to a low point on our range of $550 per ton and our average is now down to $570 per ton. Both the low end of our range and the average are $20 per ton lower than one week ago.
