SMU Data and Models
June 11, 2019
Service Center Spot Pricing – Capitulation?
Written by John Packard
A higher percentage of manufacturing companies and flat rolled steel service centers are reporting distributors as continuing to lower spot pricing to their customers. We have now passed through the mythical “capitulation” level and we will explain what that means in a moment.
First, we saw 79 percent of the manufacturing companies responding to our flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey this past week reporting decreasing spot pricing out of their service center suppliers. This is an increase of 14 percent compared to the middle of May and we are at levels not seen since early first-quarter 2019 (just prior to the domestic mill price increase announcements, which started at the end of January 2019).
