US flat-rolled steel prices continued to hold Thursday amid tight availability and light spot buying activity, according to sources.
The daily Platts TSI US hot-rolled coil assessment was $876/st Thursday, unchanged from Wednesday, while the daily Platts TSI US cold-rolled coil assessment was $1,014.25/st, up 50 cents from Wednesday.
Buyers continue to debate whether sheet pricing has reached its peak, with some waiting for offers to come down before buying and others seeing the potential for further upside.
"I think the market is set to go higher," a domestic trader said. He said slab availability is becoming tighter elsewhere in the world, which will increase US import prices, regardless of the US' 25% import tariff on steel.
Additionally, inventory numbers at US service centers remain at historic lows, he said. At the current shipping rate, flat-rolled inventories represented 2.2 months of supply in March, according to the most recent Metals Service Center Institute data, released this week.
"Access to the mills' order books will become, if it is not already, more important than price," the domestic trader said. "This market is tight as a drum."
The combined Platts TSI price index uses a volume-weighted average calculation -- according to TSI's standard -- to determine value on an ex-works Indiana basis.
