Steel Products Prices North America

Comparison Price Indices: Sheet Higher/Plate Lower

May 20, 2018

Flat rolled prices increased slightly on most products this past week, according to the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Plate prices were seen as being slightly lower than what was published one week ago.

Benchmark hot rolled has been relatively stable over the past few weeks. SteelBenchmarker, which only publishes prices twice per month, is now reporting numbers similar to those being reported by SMU and Platts. Steel Market Update had HRC as being unchanged for the week while Platts took their number up by $8 per ton by the end of last week.

Cold rolled prices were seen as being higher by all three indexes with Platts being the highest at $1,014 per ton, followed by SMU at $1,010 per ton and SteelBenchmarker at $995 per ton.

Galvanized .060” G90 was up $5 at SMU, now averaging $1,106 per ton (includes extras), while Platts was unchanged at $1,114 per ton.

SMU took their average for .0142” AZ50, Grade 80 Galvalume down by $5 per ton. That item now averages $1,321 per ton.

Plate prices were seen as being lower by all three indexes. SMU’s average last week was $950 per ton, down $10 per ton from the prior week. Platts dropped $7 per ton to $941 per ton and SteelBenchmarker was down $11 per ton from the last time they provided prices and now averages $927 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 The weeks where they do not produce numbers (NA = not available) we will not include their outdated numbers in the CPI average.