SMU Flat Rolled Market Trends Analysis Overview

Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a review of the flat rolled steel market in our quest to better understand market trends which affect steel pricing and purchasing. We invite approximately 550-600 steel people to participate in our questionnaires. Those invited come from the manufacturing segment of the industry (approximately 45 to 50 percent of our respondents), steel service centers/wholesalers (37 to 47 percent), steel mills (4 to 8 percent), trading companies (3 to 6 percent) and toll processors/suppliers to the industry (1 to 5 percent).

Last week we conducted our early September analysis and the make-up of the pool of individuals responding was 47 percent manufacturing companies, 40 percent service centers/wholesalers, 6 percent steel mills, 4 percent trading companies and 3 percent toll processors/suppliers to the industry.