Steel prices continue to slide, crunched by financial and credit woes

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 9/30/2008 12:20:00 PM

With the manufacturing economy in disarray and steel purchasing in decline, warehouse inventories are accumulating, market prices are accelerating their slide and mills are reported to be begging for orders. That’s the word from surveys of steel buyers and reports from purchasing directors at service centers, processing and fabrication firms and end-product manufacturing companies. As North American scrap costs have dropped and are expected to drop even more, steel transaction values are falling quite rapidly. So, hot-rolled steel sheet slipped to an average $983 in September, a 6.2% drop from August. (See Purchasingdata.com, Sept. 30, 2008, issue of Steel Flash Report)