Spot prices for cold-rolled coil firmed in the US alongside higher import offers, sources said Friday, while there is lingering concern over the sustainability of higher hot-rolled coil prices.
A trader said he did not believe domestic CRC was still available at $520/st as both it and hot-dipped galvanized material were strong. However, he pointed to the depressed energy market weighing down HRC demand, which may have prices under $400/st for large tonnage buys. The trader said that was unlikely the case a week or two ago.
He added the hypothetical price to get customers interested on new import offers would have to be around $340/st, but even at that level buyers would question if that would be attractive with the longer import lead times.
A second trader said he was seeing a "very strong" domestic spot market with pricing between $540-$570/st for truckload-sized orders. He said resale prices for new import offers on CRC were between $465-$485/st along the East Coast.
One buy-side source said he was seeing "the domestics pretty much sticking to their guns" on pricing, but did not expect it to last as "there is still too much inventory lying around." He pointed to depressed oil prices, which will continue to deteriorate oil country demand for HRC.
"On the import side, I got an unusually large amount of calls and offers this week," he added, as there were galvanized quotes "from everywhere, Indian to Vietnam, to Brazil, to Egypt. All around the world in a week."
Another buy-side source said he had received offers for Vietnamese CRC into the Houston market at around $435/st on a DDP basis.
Brazilian HDG still remains aggressive, according to a third trader who heard offers for lighter gauge G90 coated material at $520/st into Houston. For CRC the trader said Vietnamese and Turkish Houston offers ranged between $440-$470/st.
Platts increased its daily domestic CRC assessment to $530-$540/st from $520-$540/st previously, while maintaining its HRC assessment at $400-$420/st. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
In addition, the Platts CRC assessment increased to $435-$455/st from $420-$440/st on a CIF Houston basis.
