Steel Products Prices North America
March 7, 2017
SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Firming and Waiting
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled steel prices firmed a little with benchmark hot rolled up $10 and cold rolled the same. Galvanized price average remained the same and Galvalume was up $5 per ton. We heard from a number of steel buyers that they were waiting to see what was going to happen with scrap prices (expectation was for higher scrap prices) and how the steel mills react to the new scrap numbers. Many buyers have told SMU that they are able to buy what they need, many are covered by contracts and those that do buy spot are not taking excessive positions. The market seems to be fairly priced and inventories seem to be balanced. We will watch what happens next as the expectation is for the domestic mills to go out for one more price increase…
Here is how we see prices this week:
