US HRC markets trend quiet into the holiday

Domestic sources say that although US mills' recent price increases haven't pushed the market up, they did succeed in ending "low-ball deals," which one could say firmed the bottom portion of market prices. "You could say things firmed, since the low-ball cheap deals that were available to the biggest buyers are out of play," he said, "although they didn't do anything in terms of pushing things up on the top end."   Lead times continue to trend below four weeks and although the deals are gone, if prices do firm it's unlikely that will happen until after the summer.