SMU Data and Models
October 24, 2017
Distributor Spot Prices Not Yet at Point of Capitulation
Written by John Packard
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted one of our flat rolled steel market trends analyses, sending invitations to 655 executives associated with the manufacturing, steel distribution, steel mills, trading companies and toll processor segments of the industry. The majority of respondents completed the questionnaire prior to the ArcelorMittal USA price increase announcement. One of the key areas probed in our questionnaire was how service centers were treating flat rolled spot prices into their end customers. Our query on this subject was aimed at manufacturing company and service center respondents only. What we discovered was an increase in the percentage of distributors identified as dropping spot prices.
