The most commonly heard spot price transaction range for US domestic cold rolled coil (CRC) continues to trend at $42-$43 cwt. ($926-$948/mt or $840-$860/nt), ex-mill; current price points are unchanged since our last report a week ago.
Some customers, however, are reporting that some mills are quoting customers up to $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) higher than the average transaction range, for smaller-sized orders.
Some SteelOrbis sources say they believe that US CRC spot market prices may have peaked; this suspicion is largely tied to early predictions within the US domestic scrap market. Last week, SteelOrbis reported that scrap prices during the April buy-cycle could fall between $10-$25/mt compared to pricing observed in early March.
“If scrap ticks down next month, [flats] mills are going to have a very hard time if they keep trying to push the market up,” one source said.
Others note that lead times, which are currently trending between 6 and 8 weeks, are likely to span out in the upcoming months due to seasonal upticks in demand. If lead times continue to extend, another source said, this could lend itself to additional upticks in pricing.