SMU Survey: Flat Rolled Steel Demand to Improve

Twice per month Steel Market Update conducts our flat rolled steel market analysis. We invite slightly more than 600 qualified companies to participate in our questionnaire which consist of questions about demand, inventories, foreign imports, pricing, sentiment, service center pricing and more. We have been compiling information since late 2008 (SMU began as an official company in August 2008) and much of that data is available to those who are Premium level members. We provide our Premium level members a Power Point presentation at the end of the week of each survey as part of their upgrade.

This past week was a typical one regarding both our response rate and the mix of companies participating. We found 44 percent of the respondents were manufacturing companies, 41 percent were service centers/wholesalers, 7 percent were trading companies, 5 percent steel mills and 3 percent were toll processors.