Buyers Report Mills Maintain High Willingness to Negotiate

As has been the case for six weeks now, nearly nine out of ten steel executives polled this week reported that mills are willing to talk price to secure an order. According to our steel market surveys, a high willingness to negotiate has been evident in each of our checks since early May.

SMU polls hundreds of steel buyers every other week with the question: Are you finding domestic mills are willing to negotiate spot pricing on new orders? On average this week, 89% of steel buyers report that mills were willing to negotiate lower prices on new orders, relatively unchanged compared to our two polls in July. Recall we saw negotiation rates as low as 16% in March.