SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Some Stability in Pricing

We are in an unusual situation when it comes to evaluating “spot” pricing. Many active buyers are contract customers and there are very few “sophisticated” buyers actually in the spot market buying flat rolled steel. Plate buyers have told SMU that they are on allocation and there are very few “spot” purchases being made. One service center plate buyer told SMU earlier today that their April plate orders were confirmed for June. At the same time, we have been speaking to service centers who have unsold, non-contract inventories to sell into their customers. They tell us two distinct tales. The first, those who service HVAC mechanical contractors and similar type customers, say they are scrambling to cover the jobs they have on the books. Others tell us they are being offered spot tons – even from integrated steel mills that are non-traditional suppliers – and they are unable to find customers for the material.

We are in the process of working on both a survey (from which we got most of our data regarding pricing for today’s indices) and we are working on our end-of-the-month flat rolled and steel plate inventories. We did not capture a big move in our price indices this week and, as one buyer put it to us today, “maybe the mills have gone far enough with pricing for the moment…?”