Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Lowers HRC Index as Bottom End of Range Weakens

Written by John Packard

December 3, 2015

Steel Market Update continues to speak with both buyers and sellers of steel on a daily basis. As this week has worn on, we uncovered a number of price points below what we reported on Tuesday. We feel that we need to advise our readers of our findings and adjust the lower end of our range accordingly.

We began to pick up signs of $330 and $340 offers last week on hot rolled spot out of the domestic steel mills. This week we found the number of buyers involved had grown and we feel compelled to report this and adjust our range to $340 to $380 per ton ($17.00/cwt-$19.00/cwt) with an average of $360 per ton ($18.00/cwt) FOB the Mill.

We have not adjusted to $330 as the number of confirmed buyers is still relatively low. However, we warn our readers that we still have our Price Momentum Indicator pointing toward Lower prices over the next few weeks.

The lower end of our range moved $10 per ton lower based on the latest information.

What we are finding in our flat rolled steel market questionnaire, which ended earlier today, that the vast majority of buyers are in the $350-$370 range, so we are comfortable with our $360 average.

We will continue to monitor the market on a daily basis and will report market changes as they occur.

John Packard

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