Final Thoughts

There is one issue I have found when relying on collection of pricing data just through our flat rolled and plate steel market analysis (survey). What I am finding is the survey data is difficult to trace back to the individual who is reporting and, therefore, is difficult to address anomalies in the numbers. I end up casting off the low and high end numbers as outliers when they may actually be good data points that need to be considered.

I learned this lesson first when we decided to add plate spot pricing to our index. Because plate has a smaller market size and fewer large service centers and end users, I found when our reliable data providers weren’t there for any particular survey the numbers appeared to swing a lot more than what was actually going on in the marketplace. A couple of small service centers or OEMs who were paying premiums were throwing off the numbers. What I decided to do with plate is to make sure the top ten data providers were included by personally going out to them instead of relying on the survey only.