Spot market prices for US domestic HDG and Galvalume coil have continued to climb in the past seven days, and buyers still report that availability is tight. The tightness in supply is evidenced by AISI's most recent steel production report. Yesterday, AISI reported that for week ending Dec. 5, 2020, the domestic capacity utilization rate was recorded at 71.4%, against 78.6% during the same reporting period in 2019.
“Prices keep going up and we wouldn’t be surprised if [spot market] prices were up by another $1.00-$2.00 cwt. ($22-$44/mt or $20-$40/nt) by the end of the week,” a source said. “A lot of the mills we talk to have said they’re almost fully booked for February production, and one of the mills we work with has said they’re overbooked for February. At this point we’re telling our customers that there probably won’t be any letup in Q1 of next year.”
A second source agreed, adding that there are still lots of people who are looking for steel. “The only people who are seeing sub-$50 cwt. ($1,102-$1,000/nt) ex-mill prices on base-price Galvalume are the people who’ve locked in contract pricing. If you need to buy steel on the spot market, you’re going to pay through the nose for it.”
Current prices are listed in the chart below.
| Product | $/cwt | $/mt | $/nt | Delivery | Weekly change |
| US domestic HDG base price | $50-$52+ cwt. | $1,102-$1,146 | $1,000-$1,040 | ex-mill | up at least $2.00 cwt. |
| US domestic Galvalume base price | $50-$52+ cwt. | $1,102-$1,146 | $1,000-$1,040 | ex-mill | up at least $2.00 cwt. |
| 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | $58-$60 | $1,279-$1,323 | $1,160-$1,200 | ex-mill | up $1.00 cwt. |