The US hot-rolled coil market continues to be supported by limited Midwest supply, while cold-rolled coil import offers for May were heard to be lower.
On the domestic front, most buyers expect another round of price increases following announced production curtailments at US Steel's Gary, Indiana, works, as well as the continuing unplanned outage at US Steel's Great Lakes works, iron ore delivery issues on the Great Lakes and AK Steel working through disruptions at its Ashland, Kentucky, mill.
Pricing in the domestic market remained firm Thursday, with Platts maintaining its HRC assessment at $650-660/st and its CRC assessment at $780-790/st. All prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
A purchase of HRC was reported Thursday for more than 3,000 st with late-May delivery at $650/st.
While the possibility of price increases loom, most buyers believe any price increases would be short term. "These recent events are definitely a major supply disruption, [but] it appears that it might only be relatively short-lived," one service center source said. He said he was told that repairs on US Steel's Great Lakes mill began Wednesday and are expected to be finished within the next two to three weeks.
Timna Tanners, analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said "sources believe the EPA-required review of pipe and roof repairs at Great Lakes likely mean a minimum 2-4 weeks of downtime there."
The mill's roof collapsed on March 27.
In addition to the eventual resolution of US Steel's issues, one buyer said AK Steel is hopeful it can catch up on HRC production by the end of April, following last month's disruption at its Ashland mill.
As supply disruptions could push near-term domestic prices higher, at least one trader reported lower Chinese CRC offers for May production and June shipment. The trader stated the last round of offers from "tier-one" Chinese mills were at $685-690/mt CFR US East Coast, while "tier-two" Chinese mills were as low as $650/mt CFR East Coast.
He reported that Chinese oversupply remains an issue, pushing down import prices despite solid US demand for foreign steel.
Platts maintained its import price assessment for HRC and CRC at $560-580/st and $660-680/st CIF Houston, respectively.
