Steel Mill Lead Times: Beginning to Extend

Lead times for steel delivery have moved out a bit in the past two weeks, lending support to recent mill price increases. The average lead time for hot rolled has moved up to nearly four weeks, cold rolled to nearly six weeks, and coated steels to more than six weeks. Plate lead times are bucking the flat rolled trend and are slightly lower than what we reported a couple of weeks ago.

The mills have announced two price hikes in the past two weeks totaling $80 per ton. The market is keeping a close watch on lead times to gauge the likelihood the mills will hold firm in their pursuit of higher prices. Note that Steel Market Update began gathering this data on Monday, just before the mills’ latest price increase announcements on Tuesday and Wednesday.