Last week, US domestic HSS producers announced they're be raising prices by $5.00 cwt. ($110/mt or $100/nt), effective immediately. This week, sources have confirmed that the price increase has been accepted, which puts spot market pricing in the range of $56.50-$57.50 cwt. ($1,246-$1,268/mt or $1,130-$1,150/nt), FOB mill.
“All the tube mills’ rolling for December is gone, most of January is gone, and availability isn’t great,” a source said. “There’s virtually no floor stock at the mills, and [prices] aren’t being driven by demand, they’re being driven by lack of availability.”
A second source agreed. “Demand is pretty decent but it’s not crazy busy,” he added. “People seem to be buying what they need to replenish their inventory, so they have stock for a couple of months and won’t need to buy if market prices keep going up in the short term, which we think they will. Our inventory has increased in value, but we better make money on the inventory we have in stock while prices are rising, because when prices swing back in the other direction, things could fall fast and hard.”
Current expectations are that prices will remain strong through at least mid-to-late Q1 of next year.