Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Double Digit Price Drops
Written by John Packard
January 25, 2015
According to the flat rolled steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update, many of the flat rolled steel products are seeing their mill pricing erode by $10 per ton or more this past week.
The spread between the indexes is relatively modest on hot rolled coil, but is much more pronounced in cold rolled, coated and plate. SMU believes the variations are due to collection techniques, the number of pricing providers in any one week and FOB points.
Benchmark hot rolled coil prices dropped $10 per ton at SMU and Platts and by $18 per ton at CRU. The three indices: SMU, Platts and CRU average for HRC is now $560.33 per ton. SMU is choosing to not include the SteelBenchmarker numbers during the weeks when they do not provide data. You will know that is the case as we have put a “NA” in the column indicating price movement and we will not include their old numbers in the CPI average for the week.
SMU Note: Hot rolled is considered to be the benchmark for all flat rolled products as the mills must first roll HR which is then the source material from which cold rolled and coated products are rolled. Cold rolled and coated base prices tend to be $100 to $120 per ton higher than the hot rolled average. The galvanized numbers include $69 worth of extras for .060” G90 and Galvalume numbers include $291 worth of extras for .0142” AZ50 Grade 80.
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.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.
Note that SteelBenchmarker produces numbers twice per month. On the weeks they produce numbers we will include them in the average. The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America

Nucor slows HRC price climb with $5/ton increase
After eight weeks of double-digit price increases on hot-rolled (HR) coil, Nucor slowed the price rise this week with an increase of $5 per short ton.

Domestic CRC prices surge ahead of imports
The price spread between stateside-produced CR and imports reached its widest margin in over a year.

Evraz raises plate prices $160/ton
Evraz North America (NA) has followed Nucor and SSAB with a plate price increase of its own: up $160 per short ton (st). The increase was effective immediately for all new orders of carbon, high-strength low-alloy, and normalized and quenched-and-tempered plate products, as well as for hot-rolled coil, the steelmaker said in a letter to […]

Nucor lifts HR coil to $820/ton
Nucor has increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil for a fourth consecutive week.

Nucor pushes HR spot price to $790/ton
Nucor increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil to $790 per short ton (st) on Monday, Feb. 10 – a $15/st bump vs. last week. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company has raised its weekly CSP by $40/st over the past three weeks after maintaining tags at $750/st since Nov. 12, according to SMU’s […]