Steel Products Prices North America
Service Center Spot Prices Surge to Support Mill Increases
Written by John Packard
January 2, 2018
The week prior to the Christmas holiday, Steel Market Update conducted a review of the flat rolled steel market and the trends impacting supply, demand and pricing trends. The steel survey, sent to 640 individuals involved in the flat rolled and plate industries, found service centers as more supportive of higher spot prices than they had been over the previous few months. SMU believes this support for higher spot pricing out of the distributors will be a positive development for domestic steel mill pricing.
The SMU Price Momentum Indicator begins the New Year pointing toward higher domestic steel prices over the next 30 to 60 days, partially due to the results of our inquiries about steel service center spot pricing.
The majority of manufacturing companies (57 percent) responding to our inquiries reported steel distributors as increasing prices. No manufacturing companies reported spot prices as falling for the first time in three-and-a-half months.
Service centers responding to our survey were even more bullish with 74 percent of the distributors responding reporting their company as raising spot prices to their customers. This is 30 percentage points higher than what we measured at the beginning of December and the most aggressive we have seen service center spot pricing since late first quarter 2017.
This is yet another reason why the SMU Pricing Momentum Indicator is pointing toward higher prices over the next 30 to 60 working days.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America
CRU: Q3 will be the lowest point in current sheet price cycle
CRU Principal Analyst Shankhadeep Mukherjee expects a restocking cycle for steel sheet products in most parts of the world due to either low inventories or seasonally stronger demand.
CRU: US rebar and wire rod prices rise alongside S232 increase
CRU Senior Steel Analyst Alexandra Anderson discusses current market and pricing dynamics for long steel products in the US.
SMU Price Ranges: Sheet and plate steady ahead of Independence Day
Sheet and plate prices were little changed in the shortened week ahead of Independence Day, according to SMU’s latest check of the market.
Nucor maintains plate prices, opens August order book
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat again with the opening of its August order book.
Nucor CSP remains level at $900/ton
Nucor maintained its weekly list price for hot-rolled (HR) coil this week, following two consecutive increases.