US flat steel markets were mixed for a second week as new demand for finished steel products continues to languish and August scrap settled sideways to July values, market insiders told SteelOrbis this week. Steady hot-rolled coil pricing offers from steelmaker Nucor on August 12 also had little effect on August spot pricing, they said.
In summary, spot HRC pricing was slightly lower on flat August scrap values, while cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized markets saw a slight price increase versus previous assessments, weekly SteelOrbis data shows.
“The flat steel markets have truly flatlined right now,” said one SteelOrbis market insider. “Over the past five weeks the price of HRC has ranged between $32.80-$32.95/cwt. [$723-726/mt or $656-659/nt],” he said. “The number of outages ... could give mills some leverage, as there will be less supply to sell,” another source added. “By the end of the quarter, prices should be up, as historically, the following first quarter is usually the best quarter of the year.”
The weekly SteelOrbis HRC assessment declined on average $0.38/cwt. ($8.38/mt or $7.60/nt) to $32.75-33.25/cwt. ($655-665/nt or $722-733/mt) on a delivered to customer basis. Of note is the widening of the weekly price spread between HRC and spot CRC which increased from $12.50/cwt. ($250/nt or $276/mt) the week of August 5, to $13.75/cwt. ($275/nt or $303/mt). The spread had been narrowing for the past several weeks as both HRC and CRC pricing moved lower together, though this week’s rising CRC and declining HRC pricing bucked the trend. Analysts interviewed by SteelOrbis in July said they expected the price spread between the two finished steel products to narrow to a more “historical” average of $200-250/nt ($10.00-12.50/cwt.) over the next several months, after exploding to nearly $400/nt over the last several years as steel markets recovered from post COVID-19 steel price spikes.
On August 12, steelmaker Nucor kept its Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the price it charges for HRC across all of its mills- steady at $690/nt ($761/mt) or $34.50/cwt. FOB mill, following two back-to-back price increases. Market insiders say the Nucor increases are an attempt by the steelmaker to establish a price floor under falling finished steel prices as demand still fails to impress. They also said Nucor CSP pricing below $32.50-$33.50/cwt. ($650-670/st or $717-739/mt) FOB mill was approaching the mills’ variable cost of doing business, therefore, selling at or below those levels could cause the mill to lose money.
In the HDG markets, traders report little new spot activity with prices reported slightly higher on average at $865-875/nt ($954-965/mt), or $43.75-43.75/cwt. delivered to customer.
