The average transaction range for US domestic hollow structural section (HSS) tubing has softened by $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) on the bottom end in the past seven days, from $49.00-$50.00 cwt. ($1,080-$1,102/mt or $980-$1,000/nt) to $48.00-$50.00 cwt. ($1,058-$1,102/mt or $960-$1,000/nt), ex-mill; sources close to SteelOrbis say they expect the top end of this range will revise downward in the upcoming weeks.
Mills’ desire to fill their order books has led to a marked uptick in deal making, sources note, adding that customers’ belief that prices will continue to trend downward has overall ex-mill order activity “at levels that are below what the mills want.”
Other factors, such as down trending US HRC prices, coupled with the expectation that US scrap prices will soften during the May buy cycle, have also helped to place downward price pressure on US HSS prices.