Although activity in the US domestic market is “mostly dead” according to sources, the seasonal slowness is only expected to last for the next couple weeks. The last week of August/first week of September should see an uptick in orders, sources say, but until then spot prices will likely remain in the range of $27.00-$29.00 cwt. ($540-$600/nt or $595-$640/mt) ex-mill—unchanged in the last week.
Once activity resumes, sources say the availability of import positions will have more of an impact on US domestic rebar spot prices than the September scrap trend. However, mills aren’t expected to announce an official price decrease, even if import positions put significant pressure on the domestic market. Instead, transaction prices will likely vary based on case-by-case deals.