Hot-rolled steel coil deals in the US have become scarcer on longer lead times and cold-rolled coil supply remains constrained, market sources said on Wednesday.
One Midwest service center source said he was seeing mill asking prices for HRC between $430-$440/st and that buying below $420/st was still happening, "but those days are limited if things stay on track."
Pricing was firming pretty quickly, according to a second service center source, who added "there hasn't been much [of] a push-back in steel pricing. It's so low people came to the conclusion it probably would go up eventually."
The service center source also suspected that HRC import deals that had been available in the past were now gone.
He had spot HRC pricing between $430-$440/st ex-works basis and expected mills to "push the envelope" on CRC and hot-dip galvanized material as those products would be their "cash cow."
One mill source said he was seeing their CRC and HDG base pricing around $590/st in the Midwest, with lead times out to about seven weeks depending on product. Lead times were out from their usual levels of four to five weeks as a result of better demand but also supply reductions from other producers.
A third service center source said supply from integrated mills was an issue and lead times were way out, into June for HDG material in some instances.
He added that the mini-mills have benefited from this and seen their business pick up and lead times also push out. One mini-mill is sold out of June HDG and not taking new orders, the service center source said.
Platts maintained its daily HRC and CRC assessments at $420-$440/st and $580-$600/st, respectively. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
