US hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil prices inched up Monday to start the week as the market continued to digest the latest price increase issued by domestic mills last week.
The daily Platts TSI US HRC assessment was calculated at $621/st Monday, up $3.25/st from Friday. A US mill reported selling more than 1,000 st at $610/st late last week, while another US producer reported selling under 1,000 st at $629/st Friday.
US mills last week began informing customers that they would be raising base prices for all sheet products by $30/st, effective immediately. Buy- and sell-side sources said the increases have pushed HRC offers to the mid-$600s, ex-works.
"In just talking to all of the mills, it looks like they are targeting $640/st HRC and $800/st minimum [for] value-add," a service center source said.
He has not tested the market much at those numbers, but said he expected mills to hold HRC offers in the mid-$600s in the near term.
"[I] do not see anyone looking to back off of HRC anytime soon with where lead times are at," he said. Buyers reported that most lead times have pushed out into January.
The daily Platts TSI US CRC assessment, meanwhile, was calculated at $785.25/st Monday, up $1.50 from Friday. A US mill reported selling almost 900 st at $856/st Friday, however other mill transactions were reported closer to $780/st.
Buyers reported they were seeing CRC offers for new spot orders around $800-$820/st Monday.
The most recent price increase could help to narrow the wide range of CRC and galvanized base substrate offers that have been seen in the market in recent weeks, another service center source said.
S&P Global Platts calculated Monday its Platts TSI assessment of 16-gauge HDG sheet with G90 coating at $851.50/st, down $9 on week, on lower reported transaction prices.
A US mill reported selling more than 2,000 st at $914/st, including zinc coating extras, on Friday; however, another US producer reported sales late last week around $840/st, including zinc coating extras.
"Nobody is rushing in to meet the price increase announcements," a domestic trader said. He put current galvanized base offers, excluding coating extras, at $780/st. Current demand for galvanized sheet is decent, but not overly robust, he said.
A number of other buy-side sources said they were seeing offers for galvanized substrate at $800/st Monday, excluding zinc extras.
Along with the base price announcements issued last week, Nucor and ArcelorMittal have informed customers they are raising their coating extras effective with new orders, attributing the increase to rising zinc costs.
"While I'm skeptical about the [base] price increase, I do believe most mills will raise coating extras," a third service center source said.
The combined Platts TSI price indices use a volume-weighted average calculation -- according to TSI's standard -- to determine value on an ex-works Indiana basis.
