US wide-flange beam prices continue to hold steady into August as the market has remained relatively quiet throughout summer, sources said Monday.
Mill-offered discounts on wide-flange beams began to tighten at the end of June and continued to hold at those levels in July, a service center said. "Mill are not being very generous with discounts," he said.
Demand for beams remains stable, but not overly robust, said another buy-side source. WF beam import offers have fallen off since the start of summer, which has helped domestic prices stay firm, he added. However, new import offers for December and January delivery are starting to emerge, according to the service center source, which could slightly soften domestic pricing.
Merchant bar prices continued to hold steady after seeing a slight increase at the start of summer, sources said. A second service center source said he expects merchant bar pricing to remain flat through to the end of summer and into early fall.
"Merchant bar pricing usually goes along with beams, and there isn't much happening in either market," said the first service center source.
Overall demand for merchant bar has been relatively unchanged throughout the summer, sources said.
"You typically don't see many kind of noticeable improvement until September, October," the second service center source said. "But for now you just have to wait out the summer slowdown."
