The most commonly heard spot market price transaction range for US domestic HRC has softened yet again. Prices, which were previously heard at $93-$95 cwt. ($2,050-$2,094/mt or $1,860-$1,900/nt), FOB mill, are now trending at $90-$93 cwt. ($1,984-$2,050/mt or $1,800-$1,860/nt), FOB mill.
CRC prices, which had until this week held steady, have also revised downward, from $106-$110 cwt. ($2,337-$2,425/mt or $2,120-$2,200/nt), to $106-$108 cwt.($2,337-$2,381/mt or $2,210-$2,160/nt), FOB mill.
“I think everyone is pretty much convinced that we’re finally on the downslope,” a source said. “But none of us know how fast, or how far, it’s going to come down.”
Other sources, who have spent the past several months stating that current price points aren’t sustainable, agree that the market has been due for a correction.
“If you look where hot rolled prices were between 2010 and 2018, prices mostly held somewhere between $30-$40 cwt. ($661-$882/mt or $600-$800/nt),” the source said. “But then last year, after the pandemic hit, prices shot up to close to $100 cwt. ($2,205/mt or $2,000/nt). This was never going to be the new normal. There was not some big meteor storm or wave of natural disasters that knocked out the steel mills. Prices were always going to correct.”
