While mill bookings are slim and demand levels tepid, WFB mills have still been able to hold onto prices during the annual summer slump.
After a dramatic June filled with conflicting and capitulating price announcements, the US wide flange beam market has settled down into a steady slump in July. Earlier in the month, US mills showed a renewed sense of unity and kept beam prices level for August shipments, although many in the WFB sector were not surprised considering tepid demand levels corresponding to the season. Nevertheless, mills have not had too much resistance to their current price level of $42.00 cwt. ($926/mt or $840/nt) ex-mill (for ASTM A992, W10 x 10, W18 x 6, and W24 x 7), although some sources tell SteelOrbis that mills are not as aggressive with pricing as they have been for the past few months. In fact, one mid-sized East Coast distributor claimed that he can buy from larger distributors at mill prices, indicating that for some large-scale customers, mills might be willing to bend a little.
This trend of select flexibility could be in reaction to slim booking activity at the mill level, which has also extended down the supply chain. According to the latest MSCI Metals Activity Report, daily shipments in June fell to 10,100 nt from 11,000 nt in May. Month-ending inventories also dropped, from 626,800 nt in May to 578,800 nt in June. Sources tell SteelOrbis that July statistics will likely follow the downward trend, which can partially be explained by anticipation of the annual summer doldrums. However, the likelihood that beam purchasing activity will pick up in the fall is not entirely strong.
Because the future is uncertain, US buyers have been mostly holding off on booking import orders, which are still not competitive with US domestic prices. Korean WFB offers are still ranging at about $45.00-$46.00 cwt. ($992-$1,014/mt or $900-$920/nt) DDP load truck in West Coast ports, and while some prices as low as $44.00 cwt. ($970/mt or $880/nt) have been reported in the last few weeks, they are still not attractive enough to hedge against the future US domestic market.
As for imports currently arriving into the US, license data from the US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA) show that overall, July has been a depressed month for imported beams--import tonnages as of July 27 totaled 37,505 mt, a significant drop from June's total of 61,674 mt (preliminary census data). However, not all beam products fared equally; the US has imported 14,044 mt of I-beams so far in July, with Spain leading the list of sources with 8,422 mt, followed by Luxembourg with 3,630 mt and Mexico with 1,224 mt. H-section imports, on the other hand, took a substantial hit in July, with only 9,301 mt imported so far, compared to 32,072 mt in June. Spain was also the number one source of imported H-sections to the US in July, with 4,492 mt, with Luxembourg a near second with 3,721 mt.