The most commonly heard spot price transaction range for
US domestic cold rolled coil (
CRC) continues to hold at $39.50-$41.50 cwt. ($871-$915/mt or $790-$830/nt), ex-mill; the current range is unchanged since our last report a week ago.
The current lateral trend is consistent with SteelOrbis’ prior prediction that
US CRC prices were “at or near bottom.”
Lead times are also neutral, sources say, at four to six weeks.
In terms of current import tonnages, the most recent data from the
US Department of Commerce shows that for the month of April, the
US imported 209,824 mt (license data) of cold rolled sheet from global sources. In contrast, the
US imported 145,783 mt (census data) of cold rolled sheet from global sources in April 2016.
“With numbers like these, no one would be surprised if the Section 232 investigation came back with an affirmative finding,” a source said.