Negotiations: ‘Mixed Messages’ on Price

Steel buyers and sellers report that most mills are still open to price discussions, even after recent price increase announcements, based on responses from Steel Market Update’s latest flat rolled market trends questionnaire. Over the course of the past week, SMU canvassed active participants in the manufacturing and service center segments of the flat rolled steel markets to capture any changes in market trends. The more than 100 responses to this week’s questionnaire offer a snapshot of how steel mills are handling price negotiations.

Steel Market Update uses a number of questions during the survey process in order to better quantify our results. Perception is important when dealing with price negotiations, so it is important to understand how steel buyers are looking at their mill suppliers.