Steel Mill Lead Times Now Averaging 1-3 Weeks Longer than One Year Ago

According to our latest flat rolled steel market survey which was conducted last week, steel mill lead times have continued to move out on every single one of the flat rolled products. The extended mill lead times are one of the primary reasons behind the increases in flat rolled steel prices, pressure on deliveries, allocations existing at certain mills on certain products and the need by many steel buyers to adjust buy schedules in light of the new lead times.

Hot rolled lead times are now being reported as averaging 4.87 weeks. This is an increase of almost one full week compared to one month ago and is almost two weeks longer than what we reported one year ago. HR lead times are now the most extended since the middle of May 2014 when we reported HRC lead times as averaging 4.91 weeks.