US CRC trade case rumors pump up the volume

It’s been approximately nine months since people in the US started hearing rumors about a potential trade case against certain offshore producers of cold rolled coil; this week, the volume on those rumors has turned up a notch.

“A lot of people think this thing is going to happen around the end of the month,” according to sources close to SteelOrbis, who note that fewer and fewer traders are booking offshore tons.   Part of that relates to concern that a filing is imminent, another part of that relates to the overwhelming amount of offshore CRC that’s still sitting on the ground.  “Everyone bought heavy at the end of last year thinking it was the ‘last round of buying’ they could get in before a trade case hit; when prices fell, people booked a bunch of tons because they could get them cheap.  Now there’s just piles of the stuff sitting everywhere.”

In terms of prices, everything is steady week-on-week.  US prices have held at approximately $28.00-$29.00 cwt. ($617-$639/mt or $560-$580/nt) ex-Midwest mill, while offshore offers are also trending lateral.  At this point, buyers are all taking caution and are taking a wait-and-see approach to the market.