In mid-March, the US Department of Commerce announced affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping case against hot rolled coil (HRC) producers in Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK.
Although current US HRC import tons from Australia, Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK are down substantially year-on-year, July 26 data from the US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance indicates that for the month of June, the US imported 75,182 mt (preliminary census data) from Korean steelmakers, which is an increase from June 2015, when the US imported 63,708 mt (census data.)
“It will be interesting to see what the final margins look like,” one trader source said. “It will also be interesting to see whether Korea will still be able to ship to the US in a ‘business as usual’ fashion or whether the finals will be a lot higher than the prelims.”
In March, Hyundai Steel Company and POSCO received preliminary dumping margins of 3.97 and 7.33 percent, respectively. All other producers / exporters in Korea received a preliminary dumping margin of 5.65 percent.
In terms of current pricing, trader sources have once again indicated that the US sales price for import HRC from Turkey, Korea and Argentina is still trending at approximately $26-$28 cwt. ($573-$617/mt or $520-$560/nt).
Looking to the domestic market, the current spot market transaction prices has softened by $0.50 cwt. on the low end in the past week, which brings the current average range to $30.50-$31.25 cwt. ($672-$689/mt or $610-$625/nmt), ex-Midwest mill. Current HRC lead times span between three and five weeks, sources note, adding that ex-mini mill orders are arriving the soonest.