Although US domestic wide flange beam (WFB) mills announced a neutral price move for June shipments, buyers can still book for approximately $1.50-$2.00 cwt. ($33-$44/mt or $30-$40/nt) below the published range of $42.00 cwt. ($926/mt or $840/nt) ex-mill (for ASTM A992, W10 x 10, W18 x 6, and W24 x 7). Sources tell SteelOrbis that there is "not enough business to go around" for anyone but the largest distributors, and there isn't much confidence that the construction market will expand enough this year to increase beam demand for smaller distributors.
Because domestic prices are so consistently low, traders report little to no interest in imports. Offer prices have not changed in the last month, with beams from Spain still in the range of $41.50-$42.50 cwt. ($915-$937/mt or $830-$850/nt) DDP loaded truck in Gulf Coast ports, while Korean offer prices are still $42.50-$43.50 cwt. ($937-$959/mt or $850-$870/nt) DDP loaded truck in Gulf Coast ports. The downtrend in import interest is evident in current data on beam arrivals--according to license data from the US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA), the US imported 3,118 mt of I-beams and 3,426 mt of H-beams so far this month (as of May 22), compared to 9,261 mt and 12,050 mt, respectively, in April.