Cold-rolled coil pricing increased in the US on Tuesday as buyers and sellers reported higher offers and transactions.
"I have not heard of anyone quoting below $800/st for CRC and more have been between $810-820/st. Everything that I am hearing is that mills continue to remain disciplined and are doing very little negotiations regardless of volume," said one Midwest service center source, who added some of the market "may be even up to $825 for cold-rolled and coated [products]."
Multiple buy-side sources said Steel Dynamics had opened its June order book with CRC and cold-rolled substrate pricing at $820/st, while hot-rolled coil was listed at $700/st.
One mill source said cold-rolled tons were being booked at the company's minimum base price of $820/st.
The Platts assessment for CRC on Tuesday increased to $810-820/st, up from $800-815/st, while HRC remained flat at $680-690/st. All prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
One buyer agreed that domestic HRC prices were transacting within the Platts range, but suspected that buys may "hit the $700/st mark before long."
"Things seem to be rocking along. The shortage situation on the Great Lakes needs time to unwind and that is going to take us into June or July before that works itself out," he said.
A service center source said current supply tightness would start to resolve itself by late May or early June and reported seeing an influx of foreign offers.
The source said he was seeing German and Japanese offers, which he had not seen in years, for June-July arrival into the Gulf below $600/st dock duty paid. He also noted Brazilian material was available but was more expensive at closer to $620/st dock duty paid into the Gulf, delivery date not specified.
Platts maintained its HRC import price at $580-600/st CIF Houston.
