Spot market prices within the US domestic hot dipped galvanized (HDG) and Galvalume coil markets are mostly stable since our last report a week ago, although sources close to SteelOrbis have said that mills continue to push for higher price points.
The big question is whether they’ll be successful in moving the needle upward, and how high prices will go if they can keep the upward momentum going. Mills may have two things going in their favor: lead times for HDG coil have started to lengthen and are now being heard at 6 to 7 weeks. And despite some market players’ concerns that limited export scrap bookings to Turkey could lead East coast scrap exporters to move scrap inventories inland, the overall sentiment for August scrap prices continues to be positive.
“In the short term, the market seems like it could support higher prices,” a source said. “But unless there’s a significant change in capacity utilization or end-use demand, the current gains in pricing aren’t likely to be sustainable.”
Current US HDG spot market prices are listed in the chart below.
| Product | $/cwt | $/mt | $/nt | Delivery | Weekly change |
| US domestic HDG base price | $35-$37 | $772-$816 | $700-$740 | ex-mill | neutral |
| US domestic Galvalume base price | $35-$37 | $772-$816 | $700-$740 | ex-mill | neutral |
| 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | $45-$47 | $992-$1,036 | $900-$940 | ex-mill | neutral |