Steel Products Prices North America

Galvanized Base Price History & $40.00/cwt Base Prices

October 22, 2013

During our HARDI steel conference call held earlier today (see article above) one of the wholesalers asked the question how many times have we seen galvanized base prices at, or above, $40.00/cwt? We thought it was a legitimate question and was one we could easily answer using our own galvanized base price indices.

So, SMU went back to the beginning of 2009 when we first started our galvanized base price index and found that during the 1st Quarter 2011 and 2012 base prices exceeded $40.00/cwt ($800 per ton). During 2010 the market briefly pierced the $40.00/cwt level in late 2nd Quarter. The current price levels are the highest we have seen on galvanized so far this year.

The last price announcements called for galvanized base prices of $38.50/cwt-$40.50/cwt with $39.50/cwt being the target selected by the majority of the domestic mills. AK Steel is the only mill asking for spot galvanized base prices above $40.00/cwt.