US domestic flats market gets a slow start to the New Year

Activity in the US domestic flat rolled spot market remained extremely quiet on the first day back after the New Year holiday, keeping prices stagnant for another week. Sources told SteelOrbis that it's unclear if "people are still on vacation, or are just waiting for a concrete signal" as to which way prices will go--spots have been unchanged since late November. One of the major "signals," buyers are looking for is the January scrap move, which still remains undetermined. In the final weeks of December, many dealers anticipated that scrap prices could increase substantially during January buys, but the market remains extremely quiet so far, and prices aren't likely to settle until early next week.

Import activity has also been essentially silent over the last week and isn't anticipated to improve until the domestic market's price trend becomes more certain. Trader sources said that even at a discount to US domestic spot prices, Mexican mills have been unable to book as much tonnage as they had hoped in December, so if US spots begin to show signs of an uptrend, Mexico will certainly follow suit.

**DDP loaded truck delivered into Houston