Steel Products Prices North America
September 29, 2016
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: More Weakness in Hot Rolled & Cold Rolled
Written by John Packard
Every Tuesday Steel Market Update publishes our flat rolled steel price ranges and index averages. Throughout the week we analyze information gathered from steel buyers from around the country. At times we spot a trend developing but don’t have enough price points to justify fully adjusting either the lower or upper end of our range. We saw that this week on hot rolled and cold rolled and we are, therefore, adjusting our HRC and CRC price ranges and averages to account for the new information developed since Tuesday.
We are finding the lower end of our hot rolled range has broken through the psychological $500 per ton barrier with buyers reporting offers in the market as low as $480 per ton. A service center told us on Wednesday, “…seeing $490-$500 FOB Chicago for regular tonnage.” The comment at the end is important to us in that “regular tonnage” means the mills have dropped their quantity demands in order to obtain the under $500 per ton pricing.
