SteelBenchmarker™ Attributes

The SteelBenchmarker™ is designed to provide a reliable index of the current “standard” or “base” transaction prices for use by participants in the steel industry. The steel products for which we ask the providers to give their price assessments are the benchmark (or generic) ones that are used day in and day out, when buyers and sellers are seeking to “discover” the base market price for the commodity in question.

The reported “standard” transaction prices reflect the price provider’s most recent actual transaction prices adjusted to eliminate any surcharges or add-ons that may have impacted the actual price paid.
For the home markets, the price assessment is the booking price, ex-works (FOB mill), for near-term delivery for commodity-grade product for the mid-sized buyer. For the export market, it is the price assessment of the average price, for nearby and distant customers, FOB the port of export. For steel scrap the price assessment is for the USA, delivered to the steel plant.
The price input assessments are totally confidential.
Benchmark prices published are based on the average of the price assessments received after the elimination of outliers.
Benchmark prices are published simultaneously on the Wednesday mornings following the second and fourth Mondays of each month.
SteelBenchmarker™ providers are e-mailed FREE the steel benchmark price results at the same time they are released. Non-providers may subscribe to receive FREE the benchmark price release time-delayed a day later.

The system has a number of built-in features that assure its effectiveness and prevent its misuse:

Steel benchmark prices will be “robust.” The word “robust” in the world of financial derivatives means that the price is accurate and not able to be manipulated. Our goal is to have at least 25 to 50 inputs for each product.
When providers e-mail their price assessments, they do not receive any feedback if their assessments as to the prices are high or low, and/or have been eliminated as outliers.
The benchmark prices are calculated by a third-party computer that is looking at the price inputs but not the names of the providers. Fall back procedures are set in place to publish the steel benchmark prices and take corrective actions if there are unexpected problems.