Most of the steel market forecasts I follow believe domestic steel production will remain stable in 2017. The two main factors for stability in production and confidence in pricing are infrastructure spending and China's home grown consumption of steel.
Nationally the March scrap surge has decreased slightly from February. But we expect surgecharges to rebound and possible base price increases in April.
Regionally, lead times and hot rolled pricing have remained flat in February after a run up. Lead times on structural tube fell slightly to 4.5 weeks on average while welded floor stock inventories have depleted.
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