Steel Products Prices North America
March 8, 2016
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Prices Beginning to Move Higher Again
Written by John Packard
Steel buyers are becoming resigned to the fact that steel prices bottomed back in December and the expectation is for prices to go higher from here – even benchmark hot rolled coil. Last week the domestic steel mills announced a $30 per ton price increase. Since then the discussion within the industry has been where does that put the new base prices. As of this evening that question has not been totally answered as a number of mills have been booking at, or just slightly higher, than the numbers we reported last week.
When it comes to hot rolled, we are seeing ranges from $400 (transactions, not the new number) with the new number being somewhere around $430 per ton to as high as AK Steel’s $480 per ton (with little to no spot tonnage available, so why not?). It is our opinion that most buyers are seeing numbers late last week and early this week in the $400-$430 per ton level.
