Steel Mills

Hot Rolled and Galvanized Price Spread Stands Pat

Written by David Schollaert

February 9, 2023

The spread between hot-rolled coil (HRC) and galvanized coil base prices have been in holding pattern. The spread has been hovering around the $200 per ton ($10 per cwt) since the end of November.

Figure 1 shows both SMU’s hot rolled and galvanized prices.

SMU’s HRC price averaged $810 per ton as of Tuesday, Feb. 7, an increase from $780 per ton one week earlier and up from $695 per ton at the beginning of January. 

Our latest galvanized price index averaged $1,000 per ton on Tuesday, up from $970 per ton a week earlier and up from $900 per ton in the first week of 2023.

Figure 2 details the premium of the galvanized price over hot rolled, according to SMU data. 

The premium this week is $190 per ton. It’s been sideways since Jan. 24 and is little changed since Nov. 29, 2022, when the premium was $200 per ton.

We calculated the galvanized price premium over hot rolled as a percentage of hot-rolled prices, as shown in Figure 3. This is an attempt to paint a clearer comparison against historical pricing data.

The latest premium stands at 23% vs. 24% last week and 29% at the start of 2023.

By David Schollaert, david@steelmarketupdate.com

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. Based in CRU’s Pittsburgh office, David can be reached at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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