Supply Noise Behind Us? Pricing is Now All About Demand...

As we moved about the market speaking to buyers of flat rolled steel, we found ourselves immersed in a dialogue about demand now being the major driver of steel prices moving forward.

SMU spoke with a number of very large flat rolled steel service center buyers who told us that demand is “fragmented” and there are questions about demand as we move into the second half of the year. However, as we moved from buyer to buyer we found most had seen a slowdown during the month of July which some attributed to their customers having “bought forward” and working through those inventories. August tonnage was reported to be good and the expectation is that OEM’s will need to buy in the coming months.