Steel Buyers Basics: Steel Specifications 2

Steel Market Update (SMU) produces two series of articles focused on the buying and selling of flat rolled steel. Many of the articles can be found on our website under: Steel Buyers Basics or The Truth About Selling Steel. The following article is part of our Steel Buyers Basics series and is written by Mario Briccetti who is an instructor for our Steel 101 and Steel Sales Training workshops:

In my series of articles I have described the need for buyers to understand their steel specifications focusing on the big cost items – like gauge and width, coating weight and chemistry specifications.  However there is an additional long list of steel specifications, each costing extra $, that are often hidden in the price of steel.  Hidden pricing is a problem for any buyer so I am going to throw some light on the subject in this article using Mill pricing for cold rolled steel.  (April 1, 2015 US Steel extras are available here.