SMU Survey: Widening Spreads in US vs Foreign Steel Pricing

Last week Steel Market Update conducted our second flat rolled steel market trends analysis for the month of March. We commit four days to canvass buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel. Then we put the vast majority (but not all) of the results into a Power Point presentation which we share with our Premium level members as well as those who participated in our questionnaire.

We tend to not report on the data we collect from trading companies, as well as OEM and service center steel buyers, about the status of foreign steel in the U.S. market. With the spreads expanding between domestic and foreign steel pricing, we thought it might be a good time to remind the market that even with trade suits underway there are still many foreign options available. Whether there will be another flood of imports will depend on how comfortable buyers are with the price spread and where they think domestic prices will be in the coming months.