The most commonly heard spot price transaction range for US domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) continues to trend at $30.50-$31.50 cwt. ($672-$694/mt or $610-$630/nt), ex-mill; sources close to SteelOrbis have expressed optimism about the state of the market.
“HRC is doing very well because of the energy sector,” a source said. “A couple major line pipe jobs have hit and there is more on the horizon. Lead times continue to be very good and most mills are either closed out of August or getting ready to close out August on HRC.”
Sources close to SteelOrbis continue to report a strong belief that flats mills will push for another price increase after Labor Day. “Automotive may be down but construction is very good,” a source said.
It is also worth noting that a number of US domestic flats mills have planned outages for Q4, which could lead to an interesting price situation as the market enters January 2018. Another SteelOrbis source called it a possible “perfect storm.”
US Steel’s Gary Works has announced a 50-day outage, while Nucor, which had initially planned to have their outages split between their facilities between Q3 and Q4, has announced they will push them all to Q4. The outages are expected to range between one and two weeks, per mill. AK Steel will also be taking multiple outages for maintenance during the period.