Buying was subdued Thursday in the US steel sheet market, with some participants pointing to higher inventory levels as a good reason to stay on the sidelines.
According to the latest Metals Service Center Institute release, flat-rolled inventories rose 3% month on month, while shipments also increased 3%, leading to an inventory/supply ratio of 2.3 compared the earlier 2.2.
A Midwest service center source said they had not been active in the market lately because their "inventories are a bit higher than expected." He added the MSCI numbers reflected that.
But he said there are offers out there, adding that some "mills are starting to get a bit hungrier than others."
The source said two planned outages in November at NLMK's Portage, Indiana, facility and North Star BlueScope's mill would likely not have much impact as "both locations only have so much capacity," and they will occur during a typically slow time in the year.
A second Midwest service center source said he was not surprised inventory levels had increased as foreign material had been arriving "hot and heavy for months."
But he said overall activity had been stronger in that period, "so it takes higher inventory for more shipments."
Platts maintained its current hot-rolled and cold-rolled assessments at $660-670/st and $780-790/st, respectively. All prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
