Steel Products Prices North America
October 30, 2018
Steel Buyers: “I Am Nervous About 1Q Pricing…”
Written by John Packard
The price increase on flat rolled seems to have “fizzled out,” according to many of the steel buyers Steel Market Update spoke with over the past two days. A number of mills have sweetened their end-of-the-year deals in order to finish out their 2018 order book. This is not unusual during a normal fourth quarter, but it gives credence to the comments made to SMU by NLMK USA a couple of weeks ago when Jim Banker, Jr., advised the price increase announcement was a few weeks premature.
The second impact the price increase announcement has had is to increase the interest in foreign steel. With foreign hot rolled offers in the low $700s per ton, and delivery in January/February, the risk of buying foreign steel is much lower with an increase being touted by the domestic steel industry (or at least a portion of the industry).
