Spot prices and lead times for US domestic hot dipped galvanized and Galvalume coil continue to be stable, sources note, adding that the domestic steel market, “as a whole, seems to be taking a pause this week.”
“There’s a lot of focus on the election, and who the next president is going to be,” a source said. “I think a lot of us are focused on seeing how that shakes out.”
As far as the broad perspective of the coated steel market, sentiment is largely mixed. “There is zero consensus as to which direction this thing is going,” a Midwest-based source said. “In one camp, you have the people who think that prices are going to stay strong, if not go up, through the end of the year. There’s also a lot of people who think that prices are artificially high and that the market is due for a correction. I suppose at this point, I could pull out my tarot cards and you could try to read some tea leaves, and we’d both have an equal chance of being right.”
This week’s prices are listed in the chart below.
| Product | $/cwt | $/mt | $/nt | Delivery | Weekly change |
| US domestic HDG base price | $41-$44 | $904-$970 | $820-$880 | ex-mill | neutral |
| US domestic Galvalume base price | $41-$44 | $904-$970 | $820-$880 | ex-mill | neutral |
| 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | $51-$53 | $1,124-$1,168 | $1,020-$1,060 | ex-mill | neutral |