Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: More of the Same, Mixed Spot Pricing

December 3, 2017

We had yet another week of “mixed” spot pricing in flat rolled and plate products, according to the Steel Market Update (SMU), Platts and SteelBenchmarker steel price indexes.

Benchmark hot rolled was down for the week, according to the SMU and Platts steel price indexes. SMU saw the HRC price average as $615 per ton, down $5 compared to the previous week. Platts declined by $10 to $617 per ton, while SteelBenchmarker reported HRC prices up $9 per ton to $618. SteelBenchmarker only produces their price indices twice per month, so the change in their number needs to be taken with that in mind.

Cold rolled was also mixed with Platts reporting CRC up $10 to $797 per ton. SMU reported the CRC price average as unchanged compared to the prior week, and SteelBenchmarker had CRC prices $4 per ton lower.

SMU saw galvanized up $10 per ton with .060” G90 galvanized now averaging $848 per ton.

Galvalume was flat week-over-week at $1,061 per ton for .0142” AZ50, Grade 80.

Plate prices were also mixed with Platts taking their number up by $22 per ton, SteelBenchmarker was down $7 per ton and SMU was unchanged. Note: the SMU number is freight prepaid to the end customer, while the Platts/SteelBenchmarker indices are FOB 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 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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.