SMU Price Momentum Indicator Now at Neutral

Domestic steel mills announced flat rolled steel (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume) price increases early last week. However, as is sometimes their want, especially when lead times are shorter than they would like, most of the mills gave their customers time to place orders at the existing prices quoted prior to the announcements.

It is normal procedure for Steel Market Update (SMU) to take our Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral whenever price changes are announced. We do this to ensure that we do not influence the process, and to give the mills and their customers time to negotiate. We did not do this last week due to the grace period most mills were providing to their customers.