The mid-October price increase announcement rolled out by US domestic hollow structural sections has failed to move the market, sources say, despite mills’ desire to push the spot market up by $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt).
As such, prices continue to trend at $47.50-$49.00 cwt. ($1047-$1080/mt or $950-$980/nt), ex-mill.
“The market is just trucking along and there isn’t anything exciting to report,” a source said, adding that in his region, market players are experiencing the same Q4 slowdown that is typical of this part of the year.
“Scrap didn’t go up and lead times aren’t getting longer. Mills had a really hard time selling this price increase to their customers,” another source said. “We don’t’ expect to see too many changes before the end of the year at the mill level.”
In terms of imports, another source indicated he’d seen offers from Korean producers trending around $41.00 cwt. ($904/mt or $820/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, but his company decided not to book any tons, since his customers primarily require US domestic HSS for their projects.