Steel Mills Willing to Talk Price

Seventy percent of the cold mills were willing to negotiate steel prices, according to survey respondents. This is down 17 percent from what was reported during the middle of October. As with HRC above, you need to go back to August to find a lower percentage of respondents reporting the mills as willing to negotiate.

Galvanized was 14 percent lower and continued to be higher than what was reported in August. There does not seem to be as much commitment to push GI prices than what we are seeing in hot rolled and cold rolled steels.

Galvalume did not change, with 80 percent of our respondents reporting the domestic mills as willing to negotiate spot prices of AZ.

Note: SMU surveys active steel buyers twice each month to gauge the willingness of their steel suppliers to negotiate pricing. The results reflect current steel demand and changing spot pricing trends. SMU provides our members with a number of ways to interact with current and historical data. To see an interactive history of our Steel Mill Negotiations data, visit our website here.