Steel Products Prices North America
March 24, 2015
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: A Wary Eye
Written by John Packard
The current downward cycle is getting a little “long in the tooth” (old) and there are signs that even with the short lead times and excessive inventories at the service centers the domestic steel mills are not chasing business but rather negotiating for specific pieces of business with known tonnages and want dates. The mills continue to need orders and existing prices already reflect the weak order books. Steel buyers are telling SMU that foreign prices many times are too close to domestic pricing and the expectation is for foreign imports to begin to taper off as we move into 2nd Quarter 2015.
We heard from one of our service center sources that for hot rolled spot orders of 300-500 tons they are seeing prices ranging from $460 to $480 per ton ($470 average). We were told that two of the mills, Nucor and ArcelorMittal, were “starting to display firmer stances, and avoiding sub-$23.00 bids for ‘normal’ volume.”
