Final Thoughts

Last week, Steel Market Update conducted our mid-November analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel market trends. During the process, we reviewed demand, lead times, negotiations, service center spot pricing, steel pricing and a myriad of other important issues of interest to buyers and sellers of hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate steels. The results were published on Wednesday evening for our Premium level members (online), and this evening we have included a few of the items for our Executive members to review.

Our analysis leads us to continue to believe Price Momentum is negative. Steel prices have been dropping in the U.S. flat rolled markets for a number of weeks and our expectation is for this to continue over the next 30 days. Based on the results of our survey, we are not yet a believer there will be a “bounce” in prices once lead times are in January.