Steel Products Prices North America

February 18, 2018
Comparison Price Indices: Wild Week
Written by John Packard
Flat rolled steel prices had a mixed week as benchmark hot rolled came close to $750 per ton for the first time since Jan. 17, 2012. We are seeing a shrinking of the spread between spot base prices for hot rolled and those of cold rolled and coated steels.
Hot rolled prices rose on all three indexes followed by Steel Market Update. However, the rate of change was significantly different from index to index. SMU has our HRC average at $745 per ton, which is up $20 per ton compared to the week ending Feb. 9. Platts came in at $748 per ton (up $2 week-over-week) and SteelBenchmarker took their HRC average up $52 per ton, but their $720 per ton is still well below Platts and SMU indices.


