Even though US wide flange beam (WFB) mills dropped transaction prices by $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt) earlier this month, demand and buying activity have remained neutral. Large construction projects are still few and far between (too many empty structures and strip centers are available to justify new builds), with most distributors relying on more niche projects such as custom homes and shoring work for orders. As such, most distributors are still able to get beams for around $1.50 cwt. under official mill prices of $40.50 cwt. ($893/mt or $810/nt) ex-mill (for ASTM A992, W10 x 10, W18 x 6, and W24 x 7)--however, the trend is more prevalent on the East Coast and Midwest than on the West Coast. Sources tell SteelOrbis that most transactions will continue to fall under the published range until demand picks up significantly enough to raise mill utilization rates--currently at around 50 percent capacity for beams.
Considering the demand environment and prevalent discounting in the US beam market, imports continue to be an afterthought. The margin between import offer prices and domestic spot prices is not wide enough for US buyers to make a large commitment necessary for import orders, despite a decrease of about $3.00 cwt. ($66/mt or $60/nt) in some import offers in the last month. WFB prices from Spain are now in the range of $37.00-$38.00 cwt. ($816-$838/mt or $740-$760/nt) DDP loaded truck in Gulf Coast ports, while offer prices from Korea are now approximately $38.00-$39.00 cwt. ($838-$860/mt or $760-$780/nt) DDP loaded truck in Gulf Coast ports.