Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Bull Market Continues

April 2, 2018

All three of the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reported their average prices this past week. The lag of SteelBenchmarker pricing is very evident as they lagged well behind our index as well as that of Platts.

Benchmark hot rolled prices averaged $870 per ton, according to SMU and Platts. SteelBenchmarker reported $825 per ton, $45 per ton below that of Platts/SMU.

Cold rolled prices rose with SMU reporting CRC as hitting $1,000 per ton ($50.00/cwt), while Platts was $3 per ton lower at $997 per ton. As with hot rolled, SteelBenchmarker was well below the other two steel indexes as they reported CRC at $951 per ton.

Galvanized prices also rose last week. SMU reported their average on .060” G90 as being $1,101 per ton, up $35 per ton for the week. Platts came in at $1,083 per ton, up $10 for the week.

Galvalume prices increased by $50 per ton on .0142” AZ50, Grade 80 and now average $1,326 per ton.

Plate prices were up by double digits with SMU averaging $980 per ton delivered and Platts $949 per ton delivered. SteelBenchmarker was up $45 per ton and now averages $924 per ton.

SMU Note: Galvanized prices include $86 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 Midwest Mill (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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.