US HSS prices may be stable week-over-week, at $53.50-$55.50 cwt. ($1,179-$1,224/mt or $1,070-$1,110/nt), ex-mill, but sources close to SteelOrbis have said that soft US HRC prices and the end-of-year order activity slowdown has led to an uptick in deal-making.
“Order activity is lighter than they’d like for it to be,” a source said. “Mills are open to negotiating quiet deals for big tons.”
The big question, however, is how low US HRC prices will go before they finally stabilize. If US HRC prices maintain a downtrend, sources note, it’s expected that US HSS prices may continue to fall as well.
Although it was initially suspected that US HRC prices would stabilize at $37.50 cwt. ($827/mt or $750/nt), some SteelOrbis sources have reported that a handful of transactions are already taking place slightly below that level.