Mill Price Negotiations on Flat Rolled Vary by Product

Based on the results of our flat rolled steel market trends survey that Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted all week, steel mills are receptive to negotiate steel prices on some products and less so on others. We are seeing the mills being fairly aggressive on hot rolled price negotiations with 83 percent of our survey respondents reporting the mills as willing to negotiate. On the other end of the spectrum is Galvalume, used in metal buildings and other building products that are in peak season right now, where only 22 percent of our respondents reported the mills as willing to negotiate price on AZ products.

Cold rolled, which has seen lead times slipping over the past two weeks, saw the percentage of respondents reporting the mills as willing to negotiate rise to 43 percent. This is up 20 percent since early August and up 43 percent since June.