Steel Mill Lead Times Essentially Same as One Year Ago

Flat rolled lead times continued to slip, according to those responding to last week’s Steel Market Update flat rolled market trends analysis survey. Lead times are very close to where they were at this time last year when benchmark hot rolled was being reported at $660 per ton (September 16, 2015) and then proceeded to drop to $360 per ton by the first week of December 2015.

Hot rolled lead times are averaging just slightly more than 3 weeks, down from just over 4 weeks at the beginning of July. One year ago HRC lead times averaged 3.04 weeks