Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Mixed Results

Written by John Packard

February 4, 2018

Hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices increased last week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update.

Benchmark hot rolled prices, which recently passed through the $700 per ton barrier, reached $715 per ton on the SMU index and $718 per ton ($717.75) on Platts. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices last week as they only report pricing twice per month.

Cold rolled prices also rose to $850 per ton on the SMU index (up $10) and $863 per ton ($863.25) on Platts (up $3).

Galvanized .060” G90 averaged $921 per ton last week, which was down $5 per ton compared to the previous week.

Galvalume .0142” AZ50, Grade 80 was also seen as being lower by $10 per ton, now averaging $1,142 per ton.

Plate prices rose on both Platts and SMU indexes with SMU reaching $820 per ton (up $25) and Platts not yet reaching $800 as they reported plate averaging $795 per ton ($795.25), which is up $18 compared to the prior week.

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 Mill

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

SMU: FOB Delivered to the Customer (includes freight)
Platts: FOB Delivered Midwest (includes 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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available), we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.

John Packard

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