Final Thoughts

Today I was on a conference call with steel buyers associated with HARDI, the trade organization whose members sell galvanized steel and other products to mechanical contractors. We have an article about the call in this evening’s issue, but there was one fact that was brought up by multiple executives: the price increases “have not created a flurry of activity” with customers. One of the steel buyers told those on the call that the increases “have not caused any of our customers to buy.”

These same companies reported demand as being “good” and they were not expecting their markets to collapse. As with our service center inventories report (provided to Premium members and data providers) we see inventories as balanced or will be balanced once inbound orders arrive (at lower prices than what is being quoted by the domestic steel mills now). As the wholesalers spoke about their inventories and demand, many of them reported that their company was not buying at the higher prices. The wholesalers discussed having orders placed through the end of the year, however we did not get a sense of any having placed orders for January or beyond at the new pricing.