Steel Products Prices North America
March 1, 2015
SMU Comparison Price Indices: Double Digit Drop
Written by John Packard
Virtually all flat rolled steel products indexed by the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update saw steel pricing decline by double digits and, in most cases, the erosion in pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and coated was at least $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt).
First an observation, as we watch the weekly price adjustments, we have become aware of the differences we see in pricing and price movement for those indexes that produce prices weekly versus SteelBenchmarker which only produces prices twice per month. It seems as though SteelBenchmarker has been unable to keep pace with the almost daily changes in pricing. We are unsure as to the reason other than they only look at U.S. prices two times and do not watch pricing during the rest of the month.
