SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index: Have We Broken Out to a More Optimistic Industry?

The domestic steel mills began raising flat rolled steel prices late last week and into this week. We saw a mild rise in our hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume indices as the domestic mills began to collect at least a portion of the announced increases. As we canvass the buyers and sellers of steel in our bi-monthly flat rolled market analysis we saw a corresponding mild rise in our two Sentiment Indexes (Current & Future).

Our Current Steel Buyers Sentiment Index measures how buyers and sellers feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the existing market environment. Current Sentiment is being reported at +43 which is +9 points higher than the beginning of the month and +11 points better than the +32 recorded during the middle of October 2015. However, one year ago Current Sentiment was reported to be +56.