Steel Products Prices North America

July 26, 2015
Comparison Price Indices: Out of the Shadows?
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled steel prices saw little movement this past week in benchmark hot rolled but, we did see some cracks in the “shadow” effect as the spreads between CRU and the other indexes started to widen. These small gyrations in the numbers in any one week may be due to what is being collected and from whom on a weekly basis. Platts may have taken the best approach by putting a number out there and never moving off it until the data is impressive enough to make a move.
Benchmark hot rolled is pretty much stuck at the $465 per ton average (remember the numbers we are reporting are averages of a wider range +/-). Both SMU and Platts are at $465 while CRU went up $2 per ton to $468 this past week. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices last week.


