Markets Continue to Tighten as We Play Wait and See

Steel buyers were pulling out their hair earlier today due to the number of mills holding tons off the market as they try to determine what the new pricing should be on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products.

As of early this afternoon (Thursday) steel buyers were informing Steel Market Update of a number of domestic steel mills whose order books are closed. We heard AK Steel has little to no spot available, Steel Dynamics order book has not yet opened for the month of May, CSN did not have pricing available and was holding back on bookings. Ternium was protecting their normal customers but reported their lead times as being a week to two longer than normal.