Service Centers Increasingly Support Mill Increases with their Spot Pricing

Steel Market Update conducts two flat rolled and plate steel market trends surveys every month. Our early December analysis indicates the flat rolled distributors are raising spot prices to their end-user customers, and in the process supporting at least a portion of the four recent price increases totaling $150 per ton ($7.50/cwt). Whether the mills are successful in collecting these increases comes down to many factors. One key factor identified by Steel Market Update is how service centers are handling spot pricing to their flat rolled end-user customers.

The data we collected a couple of weeks ago is providing a foundation for successful collection of the price increases. By successful we mean better than what transpired earlier this year when we saw two attempts to move prices higher that were not supported by the domestic distributors and ultimately failed.