Following a second round of price increases, US domestic hollow structural sections (HSS) mills have been adamant in not letting prices fall. Last week, domestic tubing mills kicked off a second round of price increases, this time for $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt), bringing official mill asking prices up to $47.50 cwt. ($1,047/mt or $950/nt) ex-Midwest mill. Asking prices rose to $45.00-$45.50 cwt. ($992-$1,003/mt or $900-$910/nt) ex-mill following the first round of $1.50-$2.50 cwt. ($33-$55/mt or $30-$50/nt) increases in early June. Already, mills have been holding firm on the newly higher prices, which is good for the market, according to service center sources--if one mill gives in and drops prices, it will have an almost instantaneous ripple effect.
It will likely take a couple more weeks to determine the increases' staying power. Prior to the second price increase announcement, there was a mild rush to place orders, allowing mills to fill order books. Since then, activity has slowed, but most likely due to the holiday week this week. There appears to still be some room for negotiation on bigger buys, but the general spot price range is now up to about $46.50-$47.50 cwt. ($1,035-$1,047/mt or $930-$950/nt) ex-Midwest mill, up about $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt) over the last couple weeks. The higher US domestic prices have done little to improve futures activity, however, as most buyers are still hesitant to make significant stock purchases. So even though Korean and Turkish offer prices at $35.00-$36.00 cwt. ($772-$794/mt or $700-$720/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports are well below US domestics, buyers placing import orders are only doing so to supplement their inventories and are primarily still sticking to domestic material.