The domestic pricing trend for wide flange beams is slightly up as rumors have arisen of a possible price increase for July shipments - even though scrap prices are not decisively headed in the same direction.
The shredded scrap market has been trending down for the past few months but lately has been giving signs of bottoming out. The latest auto bundle auctions indicated a modest gain from last month, and the rest of the shredded scrap market may mirror the same development.
Moreover, market chatter says that the wide flange beam market is so robust that prices may beat the odds and even go up slightly instead of holding firm for another month. More will be known once June's raw materials surcharge is more concrete, but it is nearly certain that the WFB market is strong enough to at least hold stable for July.
As for now, published prices from both Chaparral Steel and Nucor-Yamato for standard sized wide flange beams (ASTM A992, W10 x 10, W18 x 6, W24 x 7) range from $38.25 cwt. to $38.50 cwt. ($843 /mt to $849 /mt or $765 /nt to $770 /nt) FOB mill.
WFB prices have held firm for the past couple of months despite the significant drops in shredded scrap prices. Demand for this steel product is very strong as non-residential and industrial construction projects continue to emerge. Mills are extremely busy, and market sources say future rollings are filling quickly, forcing producers to put customers on allocation. According to Nucor-Yamato's rolling schedule, the mill is booked through the week of September 9, with production of smaller sized sections moved to their Berkeley mill. The mill will shut down during the week of September 16 and then start their next cycle.
On the import side, not much is coming into the US. Taiwan is selling more to the Middle East as they are willing to pay more for the same product. The few Taiwanese offers that have surfaced have not changed since our last report a month ago and are still ranging from $42.00 cwt. to $43.00 cwt. ($923 /mt to $948 /mt or $840 /nt to or $860 /nt) FOB ex-dock Gulf and West Coast.
The few Chinese offers that were in the market have been withdrawn as everyone waits to see what result the added ten percent export tax on WFB will have on their future offers. Offering prices are expected to increase; however, Chinese mills will most likely absorb some of the cost since the domestic prices in North America have not gone up in the last three months.
License data from the United States Import Administration show that, for the months of April and May 2007, worldwide H-beam imports to the US totaled 46,705 mt. The top three exporters of H-sections to the US during those months were: Luxembourg at 15,180 mt, Taiwan at 12,015 mt, and China at 10,091 mt.