Service Center Inventories
SMU surveys key data providers each month to gather the latest information on steel sheet and plate inventories.
An array of proprietary products
Explore our proprietary steel market insights. Key features include service center inventories, flat rolled lead times, steel buyers’ sentiment indices, mill negotiation rates, and more. Access everything you need to track market momentum and make informed decisions
Survey derived insights
Access SMU’s proprietary mill lead times, negotiation rates, steel buyers’ sentiment indices, and more. The data comes from SMU’s surveys, which have been helping our subscribers keep their finger on the pulse of the steel market for more than a decade
Service center inventory and shipment data
Stay on top of the sheet and plate markets with SMU’s monthly service center shipment and inventory reports. When you know how you stack up against your peers, you can better manage your own stocks
Flat-Rolled Lead Times
Active steel buyers provide sheet and plate mill lead times. Members can track pricing trends and explore historical data.
Steel Buyers’ Sentiment
Track how steel buyers and sellers feel about their company’s prospects today and in the next 3-6 months.
Mill Spot Price Negotiations
We survey active steel buyers on pricing plans for domestic sheet and plate; results reveal shifting spot trends.
Mill Order Index
Monitor service center purchasing with our inventory-based insight into demand momentum and lead-time trends.
Steel Demand Index
Derived from the market surveys SMU conducts every other week, the Steel Demand Index is a diffusion index and a statistical tool to measure the breadth of change across our overall demand data series. It effectively helps identify widespread demand trends or turning points. An index score above 50 indicates components are increasing more than […]
Latest news
SMU Price Ranges: Sheet prices tick (mostly) upward for yet another week
Flat-rolled steel prices inched higher again this week, continuing a trend that has characterized the market for most of this year. SMU’s hot-rolled (HR) coil price now stands at…
Steel Summit: Cox sees US auto demand ‘steady as she goes’
Vehicle affordability pressures are limiting growth in vehicle volumes, according to Mark Strand, deputy chief economist at Cox Automotive. SUVs, fleet activity, and aftermarket work could support steel demand, he told the audience last week at Steel Summit 2026 in Atlanta.
Steel Summit: Worthington Steel still seeking M&A opportunities post-Kloeckner
Worthington Steel remains focused on further acquisitions after the completion of its buy of service center group Kloeckner & Co.
ISM reports eighth month of expansion in manufacturing
The latest ISM Manufacturing PMI registered 54.6% in August, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). The reading was just one percentage point lower than in July.
September scrap prices could land sideways, sources say
Ferrous scrap prices could be poised for a sideways move in September as supply and demand are seemingly in reasonable balance, sources told SMU.
Bull Moose Tube completes Hanna Steel buy
Bull Moose Tube Co. has completed its acquisition of Hanna Steel Corp., a producer of structural and mechanical steel tubing.
JSW Steel USA moves 45-day outage to Sept amid value-add push
The 45-day outage will now take place in September instead of August, as initially planned, JSW Steel CEO Robert Simon said.
AISI: Raw steel production slips to 5-month low
Domestic steel production declined last week to the lowest weekly measure recorded since March, according to recently published American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) figures. Although down, production has been historically strong for most of this year. This year we have seen weekly production levels as high as 1,898,000 st in May (six-year high) and as low as 1,704,000 st in the first week of the year.
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