Steel Products Prices North America
Comparison Price Indices: Pace Slows as Prices Approach Announced Levels
Written by John Packard
December 18, 2016
Flat rolled prices continued their march toward $600 per ton hot rolled ($30.00/cwt) and $820 per ton base prices on cold rolled and coated ($41.00/cwt).
Based on the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update (SMU), hot rolled, cold rolled and coated all increased their averages compared to one week earlier. SteelBenchmarker did report prices this week but they appear to be running a week to two weeks behind the Platts and SMU averages.
Hot rolled was $570 per ton on SteelBenchmarker while SMU at $590 and Platts at $595. Both indices were up for the week with SMU up $10 and Platts up $5. SteelBenchmarker, which only produces their index twice during each month, was up $78 per ton over the past few weeks. Even so, SteelBenchmarker is $20-$25 per ton below the other two indexes.
Cold rolled saw both SMU and Platts up $10 for the week and, like HRC, closing in on the base price suggested by the mills in the last announcement ($820 per ton). SteelBenchmarker was up $76 per ton and settled in at $772 per ton.
Both Galvanized and Galvalume were up $10 per ton. Galvanized .060” G90 at $869 per ton was only $20 per ton away from the $820 base suggested by the mills in their last announcement.
Plate prices also rose with SteelBenchmarker up $37 and Platts up $40.
SMU Note: Galvanized prices include $69 in extras for a .060″ G90 product. Galvalume prices include $291 in extras for a .0142” AZ50 Grade 80 product.
FOB points for each index:
SMU: Domestic Mill, East of the Rockies.
SteelBenchmarker: Domestic Mill, East of the Mississippi.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.
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 […]