Steel Products Prices North America
March 15, 2020
What Will the Coronavirus Do to Steel Prices?
Written by Tim Triplett
Steel prices are as unpredictable as the spread of a rogue virus, but one symptom of COVID-19 is likely to be lower steel prices.
As of this writing on March 13, the price of flat rolled steel products had yet to see much effect from the global panic over the coronavirus. Steel Market Update’s latest canvass of the market showed an average spot price for hot rolled coil of $580 per ton ($29.00/cwt), FOB the mill east of the Rockies. Cold rolled and galvanized were around $770 per ton ($38.50/cwt). These numbers moved up and down within a small range in the first two and a half months of the year and saw only a small uptick from the price hike announced by the mills in late February. The average price of steel plate delivered to the customer’s facility was $650 per ton ($32.50/cwt), down from $700 ($35.00/cwt) at the beginning of the year.
