Pricing for US domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) may have held steady since our last report a week ago, but sources close to SteelOrbis say the trend is definitely down. The current range, they said, remains at approximately to $32.50-$33.50 cwt. ($717-$739/mt or $650-$670/nt) ex-Midwest mill, but more and more transactions are taking place toward the bottom end of that span. Also of note is the June downtrend in US scrap prices, which have softened by roughly $10/lt if not slightly more in most regions. If scrap prices continue to falter, and HRC lead times fail to creep out, prices could fall below $32.00 cwt. ($706/mt or $640/nt) much sooner than later.
Meanwhile, offshore prices from Russia are unchanged in the past seven days, although prices from Mexico seem to have crept upward by about $0.50 cwt. $11/mt or $10/mt). Sources close to SteelOrbis, however, say Mexican tons are limited.
Cwt. | Metric Ton (mt) | Net ton (nt) | Change from last week | |
US domestic | ||||
Ex-Midwest mill | ||||
$32.50-$33.50 | $717-$739 | $650-$670 | neutral | |
Mexico** | ||||
$32.50-$33.50 | $717-$739 | $650-$670 | up $0.50 cwt. | |
new bookings HRC | $31.00-$32.00 | $684-$706 | $620-$640 | neutral |
**DDP loaded truck delivered into Houston | ||||