Steel Mills
April 21, 2015
HARDI Wholesalers Temper Their Views on Industry Outlook
Written by John Packard
The drop in galvanized steel pricing from the domestic mills is creating havoc at the HARDI wholesalers. As one of the wholesalers put it during the HARDI sponsored galvanized steel conference call Steel Market Update participated in earlier today, “Demand is still reasonable. My concern is that we will have a poor second half of the year. When you see price changes of eight to ten cents per pound [$160-$200 per ton] since December that is a big concern.”
A second wholesaler said, “Demand is alright. We expected a stronger April due to a rebound in weather and it has not happened. I am more tempered on my outlook than what John [SMU] is reporting from their surveys.” He went on to say that price pressure equals margin pressure.
