Even though interest in futures from US buyers is far from strong, offshore mills are not giving up on their price increase attempts yet. About a week ago, Chinese mills raised their offer prices to the US on hot dipped galvanized (HDG) and Galvalume coil to the US, but traders were unsure as to whether the increases would be able to hold up in the face of lackluster import demand. However, China has not shown willingness to revert back to previous prices, so offer prices reported a week ago are still valid.
India has been slow to react to the US domestic market's uptrend, but is anticipated to increase its HDG 0.012"x40.875" G30 and 0.019" x 48" G90 offer prices to the US as soon as this week. However, current Indian offer prices are just barely below new Chinese prices, so the increase is unlikely to be too significant. There is no active Mexican offer for HDG coil, but Mexican mills continue to offer Galvalume 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 to US customers, receiving a steady stream of activity. Although Mexican prices are still officially in the range of $44.00-$46.00 cwt. ($970-$1,014/mt or $880-$920/nt) DDP loaded truck delivered into Houston, that number has some flexibility depending on order size.
Cwt. | Metric ton (mt) | Net ton (nt) | Change from last week | |
Import HDG offers to the US | ||||
0.012"x40.875" G30 | ||||
China* | $41-$42 | $904-$926 | $820-$840 | neutral |
India* | $41-$41.50 | $904-$915 | $820-$830 | neutral |
0.019" x 48" G90 | ||||
China* | $42-$43 | $926-$948 | $840-$860 | neutral |
India* | $41.50-$42.50 | $915-$937 | $830-$850 | neutral |
Import Galvalume offers to the US | ||||
0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | ||||
Mexico** | $44-$46 | $970-$1,014 | $880-$920 | neutral |
India* | $43-$44 | $948-$970 | $860-$880 | neutral |
Taiwan* | $44-$45 | $970-$1,003 | $880-$910 | newly offered |
China* | $43.50-$44.50 | $959-$981 | $870-$890 | newly offered |
*DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports
**DDP loaded truck delivered into Houston