Steel Mill Lead Times: Longest in a Decade

Steel Market Update’s lead times data has seen only small changes from week to week since early March. Average lead times for hot rolled steel remain highly extended at just under nine weeks, while deliveries of cold rolled and coated products now take nearly 11 weeks. 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.

In the decade that SMU has been gathering this data, lead times have never been longer than in the first quarter of this year. Adding the times that mills are even later than promised, and lead times are about as long as they are likely to get, based on the historical record. Said one buyer to SMU: “Lead times remain stretched out, and they [mills] are all running tardy beyond that.”