Soaring Steel Prices: What can Door Dealers Expect?

What’s happening with steel prices?
Boilini: Until last January, 26 percent of the steel used in the U.S. was imported. But with the devaluation of the dollar, a lot of that foreign steel is going elsewhere. To compound that problem, the U.S. steel mills are selling a lot of steel overseas because they can get more money for it.

Cordes: Right now, they’re escalating monthly. The increases will peak around July or August, and I don’t see them coming down until November or December.

Parham: In the past, steel went up because a lot of it was going overseas to support China, and that’s over with. If you take a look at production orders, they’re way down. If you’re talking about typical supply and demand, there shouldn’t be any reason for it going up right now. We have a lot more of it now than we did when it was going up over the last five years. The million-dollar question is, in a supply-and-demand economy, how could steel be going up?