Spot market prices within the US domestic cold rolled coil (CRC) market continue to hold steady, but market players throughout the US believe that the downtrend in US scrap prices this month may put downward pressure on the flat rolled steel market.
“Scrap came down more than everyone thought it would, and I don’t think that’s going to do a lot to help keep cold rolled prices stable,” a source said. “It’s been the general suspicion that we’d start to see some softening within the flat rolled steel market, as a whole, in the fourth quarter. Based on what’s happened with scrap, we may see [flats] prices start to soften sooner than later.”
In terms of import arrivals, tonnages may be mostly stable year-over-year although August import totals have not been finalized. Data from the US Department of Commerce show that during August 2019, the US imported 165,824 mt (license data) of CRC from global sources. Census data from August 2019, however, puts import tonnages at 179,645 mt.
In the absence of increased demand, relatively stable import tonnages coupled with increased domestic capacity utilization rates and soft scrap prices will all play a role in US CRC price softness, sources say. Until then, spot prices for US domestic CRC remain at $36-$38 cwt. ($794-$838/mt or $720-$760/nt), ex-mill.