SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index at +56

Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be optimistic about their company’s chances of being successful in both the current market conditions as well as three to six months into the future.  However, there have been some clouds building as our 3MMA has been trending lower over the past four months. We have also seen hot rolled prices decouple from our Sentiment Index. Steel Market Update measures optimism or pessimism in the steel industry based on the results of our twice monthly flat rolled steel survey. The results are reported twice monthly as our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index.

SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index improved by 2 points this week compared to the beginning of the month of January and now stands at +56. The new reading is unchanged from one month ago and is an improvement over the mid-January reading of +44 recorded one year ago.