Last week, SteelOrbis reported that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced it had self-initiated new inquiries into possible circumvention involving exports of certain galvanized steel products made with substrate from China or Taiwan, completed in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Malaysia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and then exported to the United States.
Sources close to SteelOrbis, who have connections with sellers in South Africa and the UAE, say they’re not overly concerned. “No one has shipped anything using Chinese substrate,” a source said. “No one is that stupid and the mills in South Africa and the UAE haven’t used Chinese substrate for the past several years. The investigation is a big fishing expedition.”
In terms of current import HDG and Galvalume coil prices, those are mostly stable, although mills shipping Galvalume coil have reportedly had some success in getting price points closer to their desired rate of $50 cwt. ($1,058/mt or $1,000/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports.
Current import HDG prices are listed in the chart below.
| 0.012”x40.875” G30 HDG coil | $/cwt | $/mt | $/nt | Weekly change | Delivery |
| Brazil / Egypt | $46 | $1,014 | $920 | neutral | DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports |
| UAE, South Africa, Mexico | $47-$49 | $1,036-$1,080 | $940-$980 | down $1.00 cwt. | DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports |
| Galvalume coil 0.019x41.5625 Gr80/AZ55 | |||||
| Mexico, Brazil, Korea | $48-$50 | $1,058-$1,102 | $960-$1,000 | up $2.00 cwt on the top end | FOB Houston |