Steel Products Prices North America

December 10, 2017
Comparison Price Indices: Platts Bumps Numbers While SMU Waits
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled prices moved higher as the domestic mills announced yet another price increase this past week. There is now a large division between Platts and Steel Market Update (SMU) steel indexes as we prefer to wait a few days to let the dust settle after an increase has been announced.
Benchmark hot rolled, prior to the announcements, was reported to be $615 per ton by SMU and $617 per ton by Platts. By the end of the week, Platts moved their HRC average to $633 per ton ($632.75 is the actual number). The Platts number is up $16 per ton since the beginning of the week. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week as they only produce prices twice per month.


