The Price of Steel
Every morning I get to work open up the news. After a few minutes of looking at the latest stories I open four links to commodity indexes: Lumber, Hot Rolled Steel, Copper and Aluminum. The ticker @HRC.1 has become a near daily source of stress and frustration. Not only do we have to grapple with the price, but lead times continue to stretch out months and months beyond reason.
2 years ago I couldn't even begin to guess at the spot price of steel or copper. Now it has become an integral part of our jobs to know what the market is doing and then to shake the crystal ball and figure out how to price work.
The good news is that the steel industry is not immune to market forces, what goes up will eventually come down. The bad news is that none of us have any idea when that is going to happen.
So here is the latest hot gossip on steel, I truly wish I had better news: What if steel prices don’t return to “normal”? (thefabricator.com)