US flats mills attempt to hold the line on prices

As US domestic flat rolled spot prices have been moving slowly downward over the last couple weeks, mills have been trying to keep prices from falling much further, although for now their efforts have not been effective. Steadily good demand levels have not been strong enough to offset the impact of the biggest culprits for the domestic market's recent price slide: high inventory, short mill lead times, and high capacity utilization rates. And as a result, although a number of mills are not offering many deals below the current hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) spot ranges of $33.00-$34.00 cwt. ($728-$750/mt or $660-$680/nt) and $38.00-39.00 cwt. ($838-$860/mt or $760-$780/nt), respectively, both ex-Midwest mill, mills with shorter lead times have been more willing to negotiate. For now, the lowest HRC offer prices heard by SteelOrbis are approximately $32.50 cwt. ($716/mt or $650/nt) ex-Midwest mill, but with buying activity static, such deals could become more widespread over the next couple weeks.

As for imports, while activity has been sluggish the last few weeks, trader sources say this past week was especially quiet for futures bookings, especially amid unchanged offer prices from offshore. Meanwhile, a surge of hot rolled sheet from offshore arrived into the US in April--240,029 mt (license data) hit ports last month, due to 35,679 mt from Russia; 56,283 mt from Korea; 54,892 mt from Canada; 24,489 mt from Japan; and 24,128 mt from the Netherlands.

**DDP loaded truck delivered into Houston