Steel Products Prices North America
March 15, 2016
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Prices Moving & Expected to Go Higher
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled steel prices continued to move higher over the past week. We are seeing even the weakest product, hot rolled, gaining traction as lead times move out due to the shutdown of US Steel and AK Steel mills (Granite City and Ashland). SMU was advised by both steel mills and steel buyers that orders have been brisk and there is little hot rolled left for the month of April production. One mini-mill told us that the integrated mills are “essentially out of the HR spot market.”
Add to this the fact that Nucor announced a plate price increase earlier today and the expectation has to be that another flat rolled increase of $40 per ton (the amount of the plate increase) is just around the corner. Add to that the successful (at least in our view) dumping determination by the US Department of Commerce and we see Momentum as being totally in the hands of the domestic steel mills.
