SMU Survey Says: Steel Mills Willing to Negotiate Spot Pricing

Spot steel prices are now negotiable on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume according to those responding to our mid-September 2016 flat rolled steel market trends survey.

Hot rolled continues to be (almost) unanimous with 97 percent of our respondents reporting spot prices are being negotiated by their mill suppliers. At the beginning of this month we reported 100 percent as saying prices were negotiable. The last time we were at 50 percent or less we have to go back to the beginning of July. As you can see by the graphic we have provided, it appears clear that the late June/early July timeframe was when the market began to change from a seller’s market to one being controlled by buyers.