Service Centers
April 14, 2015
Service Centers Reducing Inventories as Spot Price Declines Continue
Written by John Packard
Twice per month Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts an analysis of the flat rolled steel market utilizing our proprietary questionnaire which is presented to approximately 600 companies for review. We receive well over 100 responses every time we canvass the market with the vast majority of respondents falling into either the manufacturing or service center/wholesaler segments of the industry. In the analysis completed this past week 45 percent of the respondents were manufacturing companies and 42 percent were service centers. This is import when considering some of the subjects were investigate such as service center spot pricing into the manufacturing segment of the market.
Ninety-one percent of the manufacturers responding to our latest survey this past week reported service center spot prices as continuing to decline. This is now the seventh survey, which goes back to the first week of January, where we have seen a seventy percent or higher response rate from the manufacturing segment reporting service center spot prices as dropping.
