US domestic HRC price range starts to narrow

It’s been relatively solid five weeks for producers of US domestic hot rolled coil, as both the late-March and early-April price increases managed to permeate the market.  And while the previous expectation was that coil prices would hold strong through late June, there have been some changes in the past week.  The low-end of the most commonly reported spot price transaction range has held steady since our last report a week ago, but since that there has been an approximate $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) in softening on the top end of that range, bringing current prices to $33.00-$34.00 cwt. ($728-$750/mt or $660-$680/nt) ex-Midwest mill.  Order books are still relatively healthy, according to industry insiders, “but no one is paying $35.00 cwt. ($772/mt or $700/nt) anymore.”  In terms of offshore offers, prices for both Russian and Mexican HRC have held steady in the past seven days, and as with last week, traders have remained cautious in terms of booking speculative tons.