Final Thoughts

As the publisher of Steel Market Update I get a lot of questions on a daily basis from readers and those who come across our website. Usually its about a piece of data or something having to do with one of our workshops. I got a question yesterday from someone who wanted to know what was the lowest average monthly price for hot rolled during the past 30 years (1985-2015)? Since SMU did not exist as a company 30 years ago I did some research and found the answer to be $205 per ton ($10.25/cwt) in November 2001. If you remember back to that point in time, this was when a number of steel mills were about to go out of business.

I did a little more research and found out that 2001 had the lowest average annual selling price for hot rolled coil going back to 1980 which was the earliest I could find data (USGS). The yearly average was $227 per ton ($11.35/cwt).