The big news last week was that the International Trade Commission (ITC) made a negative determination in the Sunset Review of the antidumping case against structural steel
beams from
Japan and South
Korea, as well as the countervailing duty order against structural steel
beams from South
Korea. These two countries were exporting massive quantities in 1998 and 1999, when the US was going through a strong office
construction boom.
Japanese imports have been negligible since then, but South
Korea has been exporting small quantities on a sporadic basis.
With the new ruling,
Japan and South
Korea can immediately resume shipments, though it will take some time to organize an ASTM rolling schedule. Both Japanese and South Korean mills have excellent
production ranges of
beams.
The news came amidst a very strong domestic
consumption period. Most distributors are interested in developing import sourcing again due to tight availability from domestic mills.
Import offers are being seen from typical major European contributors, such as
Poland,
Spain and
Luxembourg. Offers have also been coming in from Asia and
Taiwan, and mills in
China will soon be prepared to release new offers.
Domestic pricing for wide flange
beams has remained stable since last month, with a neutral price trend. US wide flange
beams are now being offered from $30.75 cwt. to $31.00 cwt. ($615/nt to $620 /nt or $ 678 /mt to $683 /mt) FOB mill.
In March, expect to see
Nucor raise its
scrap charge for long products by $25 /nt ($28 /mt or $1.25 cwt.), while lowering its base price by the same amount, keeping effective prices the same. There is, however, an exception for H-Pile pricing, which will increase by $10 /nt ($0.50 cwt.).
Domestic mills have expressed concern regarding the large amount of import offers that will be coming in shortly. In order to compete with the lower cost of imports, some producers may opt to establish “foreign fighter” programs. This may serve to make some import buyers hesitate as the domestic prices can be equalized with the imports from time to time. But right now, the published domestic prices are significantly higher then the import offers, making US market very attractive for imports.