Steel Products
Mill Lead Times & Negotiations
Written by John Packard
January 9, 2013
Mill lead times shrunk on all but Galvalume products according to the results of our most recent SMU steel survey completed this past Friday. On a weighted average basis hot rolled lead times shrunk to 3.42 weeks, cold rolled to 5.25 weeks, galvanized to 5.33 weeks while Galvalume lengthened to 6.17 weeks.
We provided the first week of January 2012 lead times for you to compare against the most recent data.
Mills were most receptive regarding negotiating prices on Hot Rolled – 73 percent, up from 66 percent in mid-December; Cold Rolled – 64 percent, remained the same as mid-December; Galvanized – 73 percent, down from 81 percent in mid-December and Galvalume – 33 percent, which is significantly higher than the 70 percent noted in mid-December.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products
Nucor’s weekly HR spot price unchanged, again
Nucor’s consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil remains unchanged for another week – now on an 11-week streak. Nucor’s HR coil CSP, still at $750 per short ton (st), has been at that level since Nov. 12. The spot price for HR from Nucor’s joint-venture subsidiary California Steel Industries (CSI) is also flat […]
Price gap between domestic, offshore CRC narrows
The price spread between US-produced cold-rolled (CR) coil and offshore products tightened in the week ended Jan. 17. Domestic CR coil tags were lower week on week (w/w), while offshore products ticked higher. The result? The US premium over imports shrank. In our market check on Tuesday, Jan. 14, US CR coil prices averaged $895 […]
US HR price premium over imports narrows slightly
Hot-rolled (HR) coil prices ticked down in the US last week, while tags abroad varied. The result: US hot band margin over imports on a landed basis has narrowed to a slight extent. SMU’s average domestic HR price last week was $685 per short ton (st), down $5/st from the week before. US hot band […]
SMU Community Chat: Jan. 22 with Alan Kestenbaum, founder of Bedrock Industries
Alan Kestenbaum, the founder of Bedrock Industries and the former CEO of Stelco, will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat. The webinar will be on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 11 am ET. It’s free to attend. You can register here. We’ll look at Stelco’s recent sale to Cleveland-Cliffs and what made […]
December service center shipments and inventories report
Flat rolled = 77.1 shipping days of supply Plate = 58.1 shipping days of supply Flat rolled Flat-rolled steel supply at US service centers ballooned in December with higher inventories as well as seasonally lower shipments. At the end of December, service centers carried 77.1 shipping days of flat-rolled steel supply on an adjusted basis, […]