Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Waiting for a Bounce...

April 28, 2015

The domestic mills were beginning to make moves late last week to increase steel prices. Those efforts accelerated earlier today with the announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA (internal memo), Nucor (verbal & later in a letter to their customers), NLMK USA (letter to customers). These moves have, at least temporarily, halted the slide in flat rolled steel prices.

It is too early to spot any significant movement in pricing. Based on our channel checks most buyers have either already bought at last week’s numbers, still had open offers at last week’s pricing or are waiting to see what will happen as their supplier may have pulled offers off the table.

Steel Market Update, which has had our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral for a few weeks as we anticipated the move by the steel mills, will continue to keep the Indicator at Neutral as we wait to see if the mills have the resolve to keep their salespeople in line selling the higher numbers.

Here is how we see spot flat rolled prices this week (all prices shown are in net tons which are equal to 2,000 pounds):

Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $430-$460 per net ton ($21.50/cwt- $23.00/cwt) with an average of $445 per ton ($22.25/cwt) FOB mill, east of the Rockies. Both the lower and upper ends of our range remained the same compared to last week. Our average is unchanged compared to one week ago. SMU price momentum for hot rolled steel is for prices to move sideways at this moment as buyers and the steel mills take the time to see if there is enough momentum to move prices higher from here.

Hot Rolled Lead Times: 2-5 weeks.

Cold Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $540-$590 per net ton ($27.00/cwt- $29.50/cwt) with an average of $565 per ton ($28.25/cwt) FOB mill, east of the Rockies. Both the lower and upper ends of our range were unchanged compared to one week ago. Our average is the same compared to last week. SMU price momentum on cold rolled steel is for prices to move sideways at this moment as buyers and the steel mills take the time to see if there is enough momentum to move prices higher from here.

Cold Rolled Lead Times: 3-6 weeks.

Galvanized Coil: SMU Base Price Range is $26.25/cwt-$29.00/cwt ($525-$580 per net ton) with an average of $27.625/cwt ($552.50 per ton) FOB mill, east of the Rockies. Both the lower and upper ends of our range remained the same compared to last week. Our average is unchanged compared to one week ago. SMU anticipates galvanized prices to trend sideways for the time being as buyers and the steel mills take the time to see if there is enough momentum to move prices higher from here.

Galvanized .060” G90 Benchmark: SMU Range is $594-$649 per net ton with an average of $621.50 per ton FOB mill, east of the Rockies.

Galvanized Lead Times: 3-6 weeks.

Galvalume Coil: SMU Base Price Range is $27.50/cwt-$29.50/cwt ($550-$590 per net ton) with an average of $28.50/cwt ($570 per ton) FOB mill, east of the Rockies. Both the lower and upper ends of our range were unchanged compared to one week ago. Our average is the same compared to last week. Our expectation is for Galvalume prices to trend sideways for the time being as buyers and the steel mills take the time to see if there is enough momentum to move prices higher from here.

Galvalume .0142” AZ50, Grade 80 Benchmark: SMU Range is $841-$881 per net ton with an average of $861 per ton FOB mill, east of the Rockies.

Galvalume Lead Times: 4-6 weeks.

SMU Note: Below is an interactive graphic showing our hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, and Galvalume price history. You can only view this interactive graphic when you are logged into the website and reading the newsletter there. If you need help navigating the website or need to know your login information, contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by calling 800-432-3475.

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