Final Thoughts
March 20, 2022
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
The war in Ukraine continues to impact the volatility in steel markets around the world. Here in the United States, we have seen steel buyers coming off the sidelines as they look to protect themselves against the possibility of being short steel. This despite flat-rolled steel inventories being at 2.72 months’ supply at the end of February, according to our proprietary index.
With the new surge of buying, lead times have come off their cycle lows and have rebounded. Benchmark hot rolled lead times are now averaging slightly more than 5 weeks, cold rolled has moved to almost 7 weeks, galvanized is at 7 weeks, and Galvalume lead times are at 8.5 weeks. The lead times quoted come from our most recent survey of manufacturing companies and service centers.
