In the past four days, US flat rolled steel mills have announced yet another price increase on all flat rolled steel products, including US domestic hot dipped galvanized and Galvalume coil, effective with all new orders. The current increase is the second price increase announcement that has been pushed out to flats buyers since the first of the year.
If the latest price increase gains acceptance, today's HDG price points will firm by $1.50 cwt. ($33/mt or $30/nt).
“Mills are acting as if the Section 232 decision is going to come back in the affirmative and it seems like they’re going to run with as many price increases as they can until customers start to push back,” a source said. “Import arrivals are going to be on the soft side through the second quarter, so for now it seems as if the domestic [producers] have the upper hand.”
What’s interesting, however, is that the latest price increase does not seem to have roots in higher raw materials costs. Sources close to SteelOrbis have indicated that expectations for US scrap pricing during the February buy cycle puts scrap prices down by $10/mt across the board on the East coast, and sideways on obsoletes and shredded scrap in the inland regions.
Today's prices for US HDG coil are listed in the chart below. Prices may be unchanged week-over-week, but our current forecast has pricing pointed toward an uptrend.
Cwt. | Metric Ton (mt) | Net ton (nt) | Change from last week | |
US domestic HDG base price | $40-$42 | $882-$926 | $800-$840 | neutral |
0.012”x40.875” G30 | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $49-$51 | $1080-$1124 | $980-$1020 | neutral |
0.019”x48” G90 | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $49-$51 | $1080-$1124 | $980-$1020 | neutral |
US domestic Galvalume base price | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $40-$42 | $882-$926 | $800-$840 | neutral |
0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $49-$51 | $1080-$1124 | $980-$1020 | neutral |