As expected, US domestic producers of hollow structural sections (HSS) have announced a $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) effective with shipments after December 16. This week, however, the current range for HSS is holding at $47.50-$48.50 cwt. ($1,047-$1,069/mt or $950-$970/nt), ex-Midwest mill, and it's expected that HSS producers will succeed in pushing prices up. The reason for this is twofold. First, prices for US domestic hot rolled coil have held steady and are expected to continue their sideways trend for the rest of the year. Second, ex-Midwest scrap prices are forecasted to go up in December, especially now that the central portion of the country is being pummeled with a slow-moving snowstorm, which has all but halted scrap collection efforts. Sources say they're confused as to why the increase wasn't rolled out effective with new orders entered, especially since buyers restocked inventories before the November 4 increase took effect. And since the newest announcement fell approximately $0.50-$1.00 cwt. ($11-$22/mt or $10-$20/nt) short of what was expected, compounded with price firming, another price increase could be announced in the next four to six weeks.
Meanwhile, Korean and Turkish mills continue to offer aggressively in the range of $37.00-$38.00 cwt. ($816-$838/mt or $740-$760/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, reflecting no change in the past two weeks. The current price gap between US domestic and import pricing is starting to raise a few eyebrows, and interest in offshore bookings is continuing to gain steam.