SMU Data and Models
March 10, 2016
Spot Checking Mill Lead Times
Written by John Packard
Mill lead times, especially on cold rolled and coated products, continue to be a concern as buyers navigate/negotiate pricing and deliveries on future orders. The longer the lead time the more steel that is needed in the pipeline at both manufacturing companies and distributors. The longer lead times provide ammunition to the domestic steel mills as they attempt to collect the most recent round of price increases.
As we have discussed in the recent past, the integrated mills (USS, AK Steel & ArcelorMittal) are either out of the spot market (thus AK Steel’s $480 hot rolled offers in the spot market) or have limited tonnage to sell. The mills to watch carefully are those associated with commodity markets most of which are listed below.
