Sources close to SteelOrbis have noted that the average spot market price for US domestic HDG and Galvalume coil has softened slightly in the past seven days, due to lagging demand brought on by factory closures.
For example, last Thursday, officials with Daikin Industries, which is among the largest HVAC manufacturers in the US, announced they would close their 4.2 million-square-foot manufacturing center in Waller, Texas, after a second employee tested positive for coronavirus. The plant, which employs approximately 8,000 people, will be closed thorough April 13.
“Some demand is steady while other demand is not,” a source said. “Some of the big manufacturers are still buying steel but you have these tiny pockets of closures which are dampening things.”
Others believe that despite falling demand, that spot market prices are “unlikely to nosedive,” due to steep declines in mills’ capacity utilization rates. Yesterday, the American Iron and Steel Institute reported that for the week ending April 4, the capacity utilization rate had fallen to 68.5 percent, which reflects an 18.9 percent drop from the same period in 2019.
Current US HDG / Galvalume coil price ranges 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 | down $1.00 cwt. on the bottom end |
US domestic Galvalume base price | $35-$37 | $772-$816 | $700-$740 | ex-mill | down $1.00 cwt. on the bottom end |
0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | $46-$48 | $1,014--$1,058 | $920-$960 | ex-mill | down $1.00 cwt. on the bottom end |