Mill Lead Times Extend to Record Lengths

Flat rolled and plate steel mill lead times continue to extend, according to the results of this week’s flat rolled and plate steel analysis conducted by Steel Market Update. Hot rolled lead times have sustained 10 weeks or more for a month – the first time that has happened in the history of our records, which go back to 2011. We are also seeing record extended lead times on cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate steels.

Hot rolled lead times are now averaging 10.63 weeks, according to the manufacturing companies and service centers participating in this week’s survey. To put this into perspective, the 10.63 weeks is 2.76 weeks longer than what was being reported to SMU at the beginning of January 2021. One year ago, HRC lead times were 7 weeks shorter than what we are reporting today. The historical average HRC lead time (measured prior to the beginning of the current cycle, which began in August 2020) has been 4 weeks (3.98 weeks) based on our past survey data.