Buyers of US domestic hollow structural sections (HSS) tubing have confirmed that the $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt) price increase announced by mills in mid-June has been fully accepted into the market.
Today, prices are being heard between $58-$59 cwt. ($1279-$1301/mt or $1160-$1180/nt), ex-mill, although some customers report they’re “paying slightly more than that.”
Others have pointed out that mills have been very flexible on prices for bulk orders. “There have been a lot of big fabrication jobs in the Southeast and the mills have been open to negotiating price for those jobs,” a source said.
The upticks are largely tied to recent, quiet pricing upticks in US HRC pricing. “The flat rolled mills haven’t been sending out increase letters but everyone knows the mills are working to push things up, which seems crazy because the flats mills are essentially printing their own money at this point.”