Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Comparison Price Indices: Has the Price Turn Begun?

March 23, 2014

Has the flat rolled steel price turn already begun? According to Platts it has, as they moved both hot rolled pricing and cold rolled pricing higher on their index during the later part of the week. Both CRU and SMU reported flat rolled steel prices earlier in the week as either flat or lower than the previous week.

SMU was with a number of owners of flat rolled service centers at the later stages of this past week and did not find evidence of a consistent, across the board move higher by all of the domestic mills. One executive commented to SMU that negotiations continue if there was tonnage actually being bought.

SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week as they only report numbers twice per month.

SMU Price Momentum Indicator was adjusted to Neutral from Lower on Tuesday of this past week. We will continue with our Neutral opinion until we gather clear signs of prices moving in one direction or another.

FOB Points for each index:

SMU: Domestic Mill, East of the Rockies.
CRU: Midwest Mill, East of the Rockies.
SteelBenchmarker: Domestic Mill, East of the Mississippi.
SteelOrbis: Midwest Domestic Mill.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.