All Eyes on Steel Mill Lead Times

With all of the domestic steel mills announcing $30 per ton price increases either late last week or early this week, the industry is waiting to see if there was a surge of orders and how those orders have impacted lead times. Everyone knows if lead times begin to extend then buyers will have no choice but to come off the sidelines and place orders.

We did a quick spot check of a number of the flat rolled steel mills to see what their customers are reporting for lead times on new orders placed at this point in time. What we found is a number of mills scrambling to make adjustments to account for the order flow from late last week and so far this week. Many mills allowed orders to be booked at the previously quoted prices before withdrawing those offers from those who did not book in time. Here is what we found as of this afternoon (Thursday, October 27th):