Spot market prices for US domestic cold rolled coil (CRC) have fallen from $38-$40 cwt. ($838-$882/mt $760-$800/nt), ex-mill, to an average of $35-$37 cwt. ($772-$816/mt or $700-$740/nt), ex-mill, although volume buyers say that discounts up to $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) below that range are available based on tonnage.
Sources throughout the market say they believe that prices have not yet bottomed out, “although that’s likely to happen in the next few weeks.”
It’s further speculated that flat rolled steel mills may soon try to push for a price increase announcement “to prevent things from slipping any further,” although short lead times coupled with unexciting order activity “make the probability of a price increase going through light at best.”
On the other hand, some believe that when customers are confident that the market has bottomed, that there may be a flurry of order activity, so buyers can stock up at low prices before prices rebound. Should this happen, lead times will start to span out and prices are likely to show signs of recovery.