US steel buyers continued to see slightly higher hot-rolled coil quotes on Tuesday as mills looked to wrap up December order books.
Platts maintained its daily HRC and cold-rolled coil assessments at $360-$370/st and $490-$500/st, respectively. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
A Midwest service center source said he was only seeing December availability for HRC out of one mini-mill producer, while a competitor had a "tiny bit left" last week at one location but "that was it." Numerous producers responded to a recent HRC quote and "everybody seems to be using $370/st all of a sudden," he said.
One mill source said they were in a "holding pattern" but had heard a competitor "quietly trying to move guys to $370/st for new business" and expected an official mill price increase to be announced next week.
The producer was heard to be attempting to put a $360-$370/st bottom in place for December, according to a buy-side source. He noted that the producer still had the ability to do some more December deliveries but did not think it needed to.
In addition, the buy-side source said a competing mill was still holding off quoting January deliveries in the hopes of higher spot prices. He added the mini-mill was still more aggressive on pricing, but it was for larger tonnages and had to be taken for December delivery.
He added that mills seem to be allowing the talk of a price increase announcement to "sink in" while they attempt to wrap up December HRC orders at $360-$370/st.
A second buy-side source had also heard of the producer "quietly raising prices" and if buyers "had a sweetheart deal it was no longer on the table." He added that coated sheet lead times also seemed to be pretty strong as some are out of January and into February.
However, the buyer said he expects things to remain "pretty quiet now until the end of the year."
