SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index Suffers from Uncertainty

Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are slightly less enthusiastic about how they view their company’s ability to be success both in the existing, or current market environment as well as three to six months out into the future. There is an uncertainty that is becoming an issue to business as companies who buy and/or sell steel have to deal with Section 232 investigation, circumvention, Section 337 as well as the 1-year anniversary coming up soon on CORE, cold rolled and hot rolled AD/CVD suits.

As a single data point, Current Sentiment is being reported as being +70 which is three points lower (-3) than what was reported at the beginning of the month. Even so, the +70 is a very optimistic reading and only 7 points away from the record high for the Index set the first week of March 2017. The trend, however, is moving lower and can be better seen in our three-month moving average (3MMA).