Steel Products Prices North America

March 26, 2017
We Are 5 Months into Current "Up" Cycle
Written by John Packard
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-March flat rolled steel market trends survey. We invited 670 people to participate in the gathering of data and opinions which resulted in our flat rolled steel market trends analysis presented to our Premium level members last Friday in the form of a Power Point presentation.
It is Steel Market Update opinion that for there to be further price increases by the domestic steel mills they need the support of the steel service center community. We recently went through a short period of time similar to what we saw last year during 1st Quarter when price support briefly waned (small dip in 1Q ’16 in below graphic) and then came storming back. The biggest difference a year makes is the starting HRC price point of the cycles ($360 in December 2015 vs. $470 in October 2016).


