US domestic HDG prices barely stable

While mills have been successful in keeping most US domestic hot dipped galvanized (HDG) and Galvalume spot prices steady, prices for products most affected by import competition are slowly sliding. In particular, a substantial amount of Taiwanese, Indian and Chinese HDG 0.012"x40.875" G30 and Galvalume 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 arrived in the US in April; US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data show 170,501 mt (license data) was imported last month, up from 124,854 mt (preliminary census data) in March. Trader sources have indicated that a decent amount was bought as position tons, but most of the imports are tied to specific buyers. However, now that US buyers are holding such high import inventories, they are able to wait out the current US domestic downtrend.

As a result, domestic HDG 0.012"x40.875" G30 spot prices have slipped $0.50 cwt. ($11/mt or $10/nt) in the last week into the range of $47.50-$49.50 cwt ($1,047-$1,091/mt or $950-$990/nt) ex-Midwest mill. Although the general spot range for Galvalume products is unchanged in the last week, activity on the high end is fading quickly, and prices could fall by $0.50-$1.00 cwt. ($11-$22/mt or $10-$20/nt) by next week. According to SteelOrbis sources, overall demand levels remain steady to strong in most end-use sectors, but until inventories are reduced and/or mill production levels decline, spot prices will continue to slowly soften.