US rebar buyers were happy to see domestic prices stabilize this month and, since Nucor's announcement that it will keep prices unchanged for June shipments, some buying activity has resumed.
Nucor's decision to keep pricing stable showed the market that domestic mills are not too desperate for orders, convincing some buyers that prices won't drop this summer. However, the general pricing trend for domestic rebar remains slightly down due to the softness in the scrap market, as well as due to the relatively high customer inventories that will grow further in July when an increased amount of import orders will arrive in US ports.
For now, prices remain at a range of $31.90 cwt. to $32.40 cwt. ($703 /mt to $714 /mt or $638 /nt to $648 /nt) FOB mill.
Meanwhile, the import rebar market is still less than exciting. Traders have seen indications that mills in Asia and Turkey are resisting further price decreases for their offers to the US. Also, Asian billet and scrap prices are starting to recover.
Import offers have slightly decreased since last week, ranging from $31.00 cwt. to $32.00 cwt. ($683 /mt to $705 /mt or $620 /nt to $640 /nt) FOB loaded truck, in US Gulf ports. The price decrease was approximately $0.25 cwt.
Import rebar cargoes that are currently destined for the US are higher priced since they were ordered when import prices were at their peak. Traders will still offer from those shipments, but have only limited room to discount prices. Also, at this point there isn't a great deal of discounting from Asian or Turkish mills going on. Even though the demand and import buying has been slow, it does not look like there will be a major price drop in import pricing. Therefore, the import pricing trend is only slightly down for the time being, though we may soon see it shift into neutral once inventories are more balanced.
The most active import markets are the Gulf and West coasts. The Midwest, Florida and East coast regions -- areas where domestic mills are most aggressive with their pricing -- remain quiet in the import market.