Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Galvanized Price Range & Index Revision

November 13, 2014

Steel Market Update is revising our galvanized and Galvalume price ranges and averages to accommodate new information that we have been gathering this week. A number of steel buyers and at least one steel mill advised us that the low end of our ranges on these two products were not representative of the deals being cut at this time. We have been advised that galvanized deals are being cut on a customer by customer, deal by deal basis at base prices as low as $35.00/cwt (or adjusted to $35.00/cwt when taking freight equalization or negotiations on extras into consideration). There have been enough of these “quiet” deals cut that we felt it was necessary to adjust both the high and the low end of our range for the product.

We continue to carry a Neutral view on the product as we want to wait until all of the lead times move into January to see if there is any teeth to the mill price increase announcements. However, based on our having to move galvanized at this time we are not optimistic that the mills will be able to move to the levels suggested ($39.00/cwt base) in the recent announcements.

Here is how we see galvanized pricing at this time:

Base Price Range = $35.00/cwt-$38.00/cwt ($700-$760 per ton) with an average of $36.50/cwt ($730 per ton), FOB Mill, east of the Rocky Mountains (Rockies). The bottom end of our range dropped by $1.00/cwt ($20 per ton) while the upper end of the range declined by $10 per ton. Our average is now $15 per ton lower than what we published earlier this week and $25 per ton lower than where we were last week.

Galvanized .060″ G90 = $769-$829 per ton with an average of $799 per ton (includes $3.45/cwt or $69 per ton in extras for .060″ G90).