Comparison Price Indices: Large Spread in HRC Indices

Flat rolled steel prices continue their march higher this past week. At least that is what our index is telling us. However, when we look at other indexes we do not always get the same picture. There seems to be a split in the numbers with some indexes showing benchmark hot rolled averaging $414 per ton (such as SteelBenchmarker shown below) while Platts and SMU have HRC at $430 per ton. The spread in the indexes has existed for a number of weeks.

We are seeing a similar spread in cold rolled with SMU ($595) and Platts ($590) much closer aligned than the $574 per ton that SteelBenchmarker reported this past week (SteelBenchmarker reports pricing twice per month while SMU is once per week and Platts is daily).