Although some buyers and sellers of US domestic hot dipped galvanized (HDG) and Galvalume coil had initially expressed concern that the spot market would start to correct before the end of the summer, last week’s Section 232 exemption announcement seems to have put those concerns to rest.
The announcement, which by all accounts indicates that widespread import quotas will become the law of the land, has many SteelOrbis contacts thinking that prices will continue to remain firm.
“There’s still a lot that we don’t know and the final decision won’t be made for a few more weeks, but things are looking good for domestic pricing,” a source said. “If it was just tariffs, we could have seen a lot of higher-priced import still coming in, that would still be cheaper than domestic. But quotas, quotas are a game changer because they’ll create a shortage.”
Current pricing for US HDG coil is listed in the chart below. SteelOrbis sources say that while mills are open to negotiation on price for certain volumes, “all deep discounts are long gone.”
Cwt. | Metric Ton (mt) | Net ton (nt) | Change from last week | |
US domestic HDG base price | $50-$52 | $1102-$1146 | $1000-$1040 | neutral |
US domestic Galvalume base price | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $50-$52 | $1102-$1146 | $1000-$1040 | neutral |
0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | ||||
ex-Midwest mill | $60-$62 | $1323-$1367 | $1200-$1240 | neutral |