Steel Mill Lead Times: Starting to Plateau?

Lead times for spot orders of most steel products appear to have leveled off a bit in the past two weeks, based on Steel Market Update’s latest check of the market. All flat rolled and plate products registered small declines except for Galvalume, which was the only one to see an increase in delivery times since the first week of March.

Lead times are an indicator of steel demand—the longer the average lead time, the busier the mills, and the less likely they are to discount prices. Rising lead times are expected to reverse course at some point as steel supplies catch up with demand, but it would be premature to read too much into the slight shortening seen in this week’s survey. Indeed, buyers tell SMU that this lead times data may not capture the full extent of late deliveries.