Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Flat Rolled Moves Higher

July 30, 2017

Flat rolled steel price averages rose on all three indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) this past week.

Hot rolled has become the “hottest” product recently, according to steel buyers contacted by SMU during the week. Benchmark HRC rose to $625 per ton on Platts, as well as our own index. SteelBenchmarker, which only produces prices twice per month, reported last week taking their HRC average to $618 per ton.

Cold rolled saw similar movement in its average pricing with SMU having the highest average at $815 per ton, followed by SteelBenchmarker at $801 and Platts at $800.

Galvanized .060″ G90 was up $10 on the SMU index and is now being reported as averaging $888 per ton.

Galvalume was also higher with SMU reporting .0142″ AZ50, Grade 80 AZ as averaging $1,111 per ton.

Plate prices were mixed with SteelBenchmarker being the highest at $746 per ton and Platts unchanged at $700 per ton. Both of these prices are FOB the producing mill. SMU’s average is based on a delivered price, and our average was down $20 per ton to $705 per ton delivered.

SMU Note: Galvanized prices include $78 in extras for a .060″ G90 product. Galvalume prices include $291 in extras for a .0142” AZ50 Grade 80 product.

FOB points for flat rolled for each index:

SMU: Domestic Mill, East of the Rockies.
SteelBenchmarker: Domestic Mill, East of the Mississippi.
Platts: Northern Indiana Domestic Mill.

Plate price FOB points are different for each of the indexes:

SMU: FOB Delivered to the Customer (includes freight)
Platts: FOB Southeaster Mill (does not include freight)

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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.