Final Thoughts
October 26, 2020
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
We had a good conference call with HARDI wholesalers this morning. The dealers who service the mechanical contractors with galvanized sheet and coils continue to be busy. They are surprised at the steepness of the cost curve, and they are beginning to be wary of paying too high a price. One reason they are wary is the Architectural Billings Index, which has been below 50 for some time indicating a slowing commercial construction market where a lot of the steel is used.
I discussed how $50.00/cwt base galvanized used to be the level where sheet metal buyers balked and stopped buying. The wholesalers told me this morning, “$40.00/cwt is the new $50.00/cwt” (yet they are having to pay well above $40.00/cwt for new steel).
