US wide flange beams market remains strong

Non-residential and industrial construction markets have maintained the wide flange beam market (WFB) at a better level than the markets for most other steel products. Throughout the slow periods and cold months, the WFB market has managed to stay on top. Demand has remained very strong, especially for medium and large sections. Although availability has gotten much better in the past few months, some buyers are still experiencing controlled order entry from mills for larger sections. Smaller sections are a little easier to come by. With the beam market as strong as it is and raw material costs trending upwards, last month Nucor raised transaction prices for February shipments. For the month of February, domestic prices for standard sized wide flange beams (ASTM A992, W10 x 10, W18 x 6, W24 x 7) range from $34.50 cwt. to $34.75 cwt. ($733 /mt to $739 /mt or $665 /nt to $670 /nt) FOB mill. Market players are expecting another price increase for March shipments, although Nucor-Yamato has advised SteelOrbis that it will not announce March pricing until next week. Shredded scrap prices have risen again this week, by nearly $40 /long ton, and it is believed that beam prices will follow the trend and go up as well. As the strength of the WFB market continues to grow outside of the US, import offers to the US are still scarce. Chinese and Taiwanese mills are busy selling their products to the Middle Eastern market at higher prices. They are also concentrating on their own domestic markets as demand for beams is picking up there as well. Due to the strong worldwide demand and rising raw material costs, the few import offers to the US we have seen have gone up by approximately $2.00 cwt. ($44 / mt or $40 /nt) since our last report a month ago. Another reason for the price increase is the lack of competition from the European mills. Usually, the US sees a decent amount of its import tonnage from the Arcelor Mittal mills in Europe. But now, both the Euro and the European market are very strong, making it difficult to export to the US. Chinese offers to Houston are now in the range of $33.00 cwt. to $34.00 cwt. ($728 /mt to $750 /mt or $660 /nt to $680 /nt) FOB ex-dock Gulf Coast. Offers to the West Coast range from $34.00 cwt. to $35.00 cwt. ($750 /mt to $772 /mt or $680 /nt to $700 /nt) FOB ex-dock West Coast. Taiwanese offers that are being discussed are at slightly higher prices than Chinese offers, and SteelObis has also heard Korea has been talking about shipping to the US West Coast. Census data from the United States Import Administration shows that for the month of January 2007 the top three exporters of H sections to the US were: Taiwan at 16,443 mt, China at 6,568 mt, and Luxembourg at 5,978 mt.