Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Another Mixed Week

November 19, 2017

Flat rolled steel prices are still mixed, according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SteelBenchmarker produced prices this past week and saw all items as moving higher. Platts, on the other hand, had a modest increase in hot rolled and a fairly significant decrease in cold rolled while plate remained the same. Steel Market Update (SMU) was also mixed with hot rolled and cold rolled rising, galvanized remaining the same, Galvalume dropping and plate rising.

Benchmark hot rolled prices were up mostly on all three indexes. Platts showed prices rising to $618 per ton, up $5 per ton compared to the previous week. SteelBenchmarker has HRC averaging $609 per ton while SMU has it at $605 per ton.

Cold rolled pricing had a wide range with SMU the highest at $795 per ton followed by Platts at $784 and then SteelBenchmarker at $774 per ton.

Galvanized .060″ G90 was unchanged at $848 per ton.

Galvalume AZ50, Grade 80 .0143″ was reported as averaging $30 per ton less than the week prior.

Plate prices also had a wide variation, especially when considering that SMU number includes freight to the customer while SteelBenchmarker and Platts are FOB Mill. SteelBenchmarker was the highest at $685 per ton followed by SMU at $640 per ton (delivered) and then Platts at $613 per ton FOB Southeastern Mill.

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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available), we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.