Steel Products Prices North America
May 10, 2015
Comparison Price Indices: Not Total Unison But Prices Moving Higher
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled prices have begun to climb out of the hole which has been almost a year in making. Steel Market Update and Platts both saw benchmark hot rolled prices as being up $10 per ton this past week while CRU had HRC up $1 per ton. The HRC average of the three reporting indexes is now $453 per ton, up $7 per ton from one week ago.
Cold rolled prices, which have been on a bit of an odd run as they have been outside of the normal HR/CR spread for a number of months, appear to be coming back into sync with hot rolled coil. The normal spread between HR and CR/coated is normally $100 to $120 per ton. With the latest movement in HR prices SMU now has the spread at $115 per ton, Platts at $120 and CRU at $109 per ton. The average was down $3 per ton all due to the drop in the CRU index ($15).
