The impact of Hurricane Harvey on the US domestic steel market is still being assessed, sources say.
Some service center sources in the Houston area have indicated their on-the-ground steel has not been damaged, while others say they have not yet been able to travel to their facilities to assess the damage.
Further, the state of imported CRC still waiting to be unloaded at the Port of Houston is not yet known.
Some sources close to SteelOrbis have indicated they do not believe the storm will have an impact on domestic CRC spot market prices, as many buyers “double-booked” tonnages after the announcement of the now-shelved Section 232 investigation, and thus have bloated inventories that consist of both domestic and imported CRC. With current import buying patterns trending light, others believe the market is now primed to absorb the mid-August CRC price increase announced by US domestic mills, due to the still-unknown losses of on-the-ground CRC in the Houston area.
At current, prices continue to remain stable and continue to trend at $39.50-$40.50 cwt. ($871-$893/mt or $790-$810/nt), ex-mill
US import CRC prices in the US domestic market from Russia, Turkey and Australia are still being heard at $35.50-$36.50 cwt. ($783-$805/mt or $710-$730/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports, but it’s expected that offshore prices could continue to trend upward due to happenings within the global marketplace.