US hot-rolled coil steel prices fell Thursday as competition for orders continued to pressure prices, with little signs of momentum shifting in the near term.
S&P Global Platts lowered its daily HRC assessment to $490-$500/st from $490-$510/st on Wednesday. The daily cold-rolled coil assessment held at $710-$730/st. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis. The top end of the HRC range was lowered as no quotes or transactions had been heard at the higher end this week.
The current top end of the range was under pressure as one service center source on Wednesday referred to quotes at or above $500 as "frivolous" and a second service center source said $500/st was "a crazy number" for HRC on Thursday.
The second service center source agreed that HRC prices were anywhere between $460-$500/st currently as "everything is volume based." However, he said "the wheels have come off" and there was "no reasoning at all to the market."
According to one buyer, HRC prices were at $460/st for new spot orders and he was incredulous that people would still be paying $480/st for spot buys. However, the buyer could not confirm any recent transactions and the prices could not be factored into the daily assessment.
A second buyer said he had recently placed some 200 st orders of HRC at $490/st and added he was "still not buying much or pushing mills hard on the price."
A third service center source said he did not see any relief yet on the HRC price pressure. He recently received indications from a Midwest mill that they were "really hungry" for HRC with their "utilization way-down due to lack of orders."
With current domestic mill lead times short, a fourth service center source said he had not seen urgency from his customers to begin placing orders. He was not actively hunting for new spot material until he had firm orders in hand. "In a sliding market, I don't want to go to the mills with hypothetical orders," he added.
