Comparison Price Indices: Variances in Steel Indexes Averages Shrink

Cold rolled prices averaged $820 per ton ($41.00/cwt) on both the SMU and Platts indexes.

Steel Market Update took our .060” G90 galvanized average up $15 per ton to $875 per ton ($43.75/cwt).

Galvalume price average for .0142” AZ50, Grade 80 was up $10 per ton to $1111 per ton ($55.55/cwt).

Plate prices rose the most with Nucor and SSAB raising prices this past week. Discrete plate was up $20 per ton to $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt).

Spread Widens Between U.S. & European/Asian HRC Pricing

According to Platts, European hot rolled prices now average $435 per metric ton ($395 per net ton) and Chinese domestic HRC has dropped from the mid $400’s per metric ton a couple of weeks ago to $378 per ($342 per net ton). Using $100 per net ton for freight, insurance, loading and unloading charges and traders margin the European number at $495 per net ton would be quite compelling for U.S. steel buyers. At the moment SMU is not aware of any foreign offers at those levels (there are very few, if any offers out there right now) but, the U.S. steel mills have to keep tabs on what their customers can handle before buying foreign from countries who can ship it here or worse, taking their production out of the country.

FOB Points for each index

SMU: Domestic 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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.