BUYING INTELLIGENCE
Remove the guesswork of market price volatility.
As steel prices fluctuate, how will you protect your margins? Buying Intelligence is an approach that matches how you buy steel to how you sell your products to your customers. The resulting purchasing strategy, customized to your needs, will bring more predictability to your bottom line.
Strategic Purchasing
Use Buying Intelligence to mitigate risk.
Future steel pricing can be unpredictable—sometimes wildly so. Our experts employ a variety of buying strategies—honed from decades of experience in the steel market—to help you lock in margins and mitigate risk. We guide you through various custom contract options, based on your priorities and how steel pricing affects you.
What’s your priority? Buying Intelligence can help you:
- Better control raw material costs
- Reduce raw material inventory
- Maintain profitability
- Improve manufacturing planning
- Eliminate exposure to spot market availability issues
Three Essential Components
of a Buying Intelligence Strategy
PRICE
Should you go fixed or indexed?
A fully indexed buying strategy ties steel pricing to the spot market (index pricing), while a fully fixed buying strategy locks in a set price for the contract period. We work with you to align your buying strategy to how you sell to your customers, often suggesting a hybrid strategy to support corporate goals.
QUANTITY
What volume should you commit to?
All buying strategies include some type of quantity commitment, requiring you to decide what volume of steel you can commit to over a certain period. We work with you to determine what volume commitment will balance your need for protected margins and order flexibility.
DELIVERY
What delivery terms are best?
Some buying strategies have more flexibility than others in delivery frequency or quantity. We help you determine the best delivery terms to balance your needs for guaranteed supply, guaranteed price, and delivery frequency/quantity flexibility.
QUESTIONS ABOUT BUYING INTELLIGENCE?
Check out the answers to our frequently asked questions.
WANT MORE DETAIL?
Read about the benefits and drawbacks of the four buying strategies.
Buying Intelligence is the answer, but you may have questions. Download our Buying Intelligence paper for more information. And ask us anything. Our experts are always ready to help.