SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Quiet Week

From Steel Market Update perspective the past week was fairly quiet and we did not find any huge changes in prices from what we had reported one week ago. We have a flat rolled steel market trends survey in process right now and a portion of our indices are based on the approximately 100 companies that have responded to our inquiries so far this week. The survey will continue through Thursday afternoon.

We thought the comments received from a large service center provided some insight into what kind of market we are seeing this week, “Really depends on mill [price offers this week]. Lead times are short on some and mills shipping early, others 3 months out and not budging on prices. We think with the latest auto sales, schedules will be cut back and mills with heavy auto exposure may shorten lead times. Pivotal time right now. Heard [West Coast Mill] cut pricing $60 ton. SDI Columbus shipping orders early, Riverdale in August, so try to make sense of all that.”