A quick look at a few of the bigger things affecting our business this week.
Steel: Spot tons are getting genuinely hard to find. Hot-rolled coil is now pushing toward $1,300/ton in some transactions, and mills are increasingly turning away spot business in favor of contract customers. Plate is even tighter — lead times have doubled compared to a year ago. On top of that, steel exports fell 8% in July after hitting a 17-month high in June, another sign that domestic supply is staying at home rather than heading overseas. If you’ve been holding off on a purchase hoping for better terms, this isn’t the environment for it.
Oil: We just crossed a real milestone. Brent crude broke $100 a barrel on September 9, closing at $101.21 — its highest level since May. WTI jumped to $96.05, and ANS closed at $99.07 the day before. Both benchmarks are up 60% year-to-date. The EIA’s latest outlook confirms this isn’t just a blip: global oil prices averaged $91/barrel in August, up $7 from July, driven by falling global inventories — down 400 million barrels this year and expected to keep falling through year-end. The agency now forecasts Brent averaging around $90 for the second half of the year. This is elevated and durable, not a spike we should expect to fade quickly.
Infrastructure: Quiet week here — no new developments since the funding extension was signed into law September 2. Still tracking toward the December 11 deadline for the next round.
Bottom line: Steel is as tight as it’s been all year with spot tons hard to come by, oil just cleared a symbolic $100 threshold on genuinely bullish fundamentals, and infrastructure funding remains stable through early December. Reach out if you want to talk through what any of this means for your project.