Steel Products Prices North America

March 18, 2018
Comparison Price Indices: Steel Prices Keep Moving Higher
Written by John Packard
We saw another surge in flat rolled and plate steel prices last week as steel buyers deal with closed order books, allocation and uncertainty. With the Section 232 tariffs set to go into effect on Friday of this week (March 23) buyers are scrambling to make sure they are covered. This has allowed the steel mills to unilaterally take prices up without any official price increase announcements.
Benchmark hot rolled was up $20 per ton, according to our own HRC index average. SMU has HRC averaging $840 per ton ($42.00/cwt base), and we are hearing of HRC offers as high as $900 per ton ($45.00/cwt). Platts average is higher than ours at $852 per ton. SteelBenchmarker, which reports prices twice during the month, came in up $51 per ton to $811 per ton.


