US steel sheet pricing remained relatively static Monday as buying remained thin and market observers fixed their attention on the recently concluded purchase of ThyssenKrupp's former Calvert, Alabama, mill.
The mill's purchase by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. should help bolster Southern pricing, which is currently at a discount to the Midwest, one source at a competing mill said.
An end-user who has sourced from the mill in the past said it was unclear whether deals ThyssenKrupp cut for the mill would be honored moving forward.
"That is going to be an interesting situation, but I haven't heard anything about the contracts," the end-user said.
As a counter to buyers waiting to see the fallout from the Calvert buy, certain steel grades and varieties are becoming difficult to find in the spot market, one service center executive said.
This has helped cold-rolled coil, in particular, weather relatively weak recent levels of end-user demand, he said.
"We've got guys buying stuff from us happily over prime pricing," he said. "There's not a lot out there, especially cold-roll. You can still get big bucks for it."
Platts maintained its hot-rolled assessment at $635-645/st and its cold-rolled assessment at $760-770/st. All prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
