Steel Mill Lead Times: Shortening

Flat rolled steel lead times continue to shorten up, a trend under way since early August, according to the service centers and manufacturers who responded to Steel Market Update’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire this week. On average, lead times have dipped to nearly three weeks for hot rolled, slightly less than six weeks for cold rolled, right at six weeks for galvanized and a bit over six weeks for Galvalume.

Lead time, which is the amount of time it takes for the domestic steel mills to produce a new order from the time the order was placed, is a rough indicator of the demand trend. The shorter the lead time, the less busy the mill and the weaker the demand. The current shortening lead times would appear to run contrary to recent steel mill price increase announcements.