US mills have been pushing up their sheet steel prices this week, and buyers reported Wednesday mills were no longer offering spot hot-rolled coil below $500/st.
Based on market feedback, Platts raised its daily HRC assessment to $500-$510/st ex-works from $480-$500/st. The cold-rolled coil assessment edged up to $630-$650/st from $620-$640/st ex-works. Both assessments are normalized to an ex-works Midwest (Indiana) basis.
One service center said he placed HRC orders at $505/st and $510/st ex-works this week. "That's the best I can get at the moment," he said, adding that some mills are controlling availability too.
Another service center source said that on Monday, a buyer could have maybe found $480/st HRC "if you could actually reach someone," but as of Wednesday, there were no spot prices below $500/st.
"I think [$490/st] may be available for some large tons, but the obvious catch there is that most don't have large tons available for May, and most likely would not quote that number today for mid/late June delivery," the source said.
Prices jumped quickly, surprising some buyers as well as service center customers, a third service center source said. "People weren't confident the fourth price increase was going to stick [and] then there was a fifth price increase," he said.
The source and others referenced mills having very limited availability for May and June for HRC. One mill had "some allocation stipulations" for $510/st HRC offers, he said.
The Platts HRC and CRC import price assessments also increased to reflect the loss of low-priced import options because of ongoing trade cases and the much higher quotes now available, even though traders and buyers have mostly deemed imports to be uncompetitive.
The HRC assessment jumped to $440-$480/st from $360-$380/st CIF Houston. The CRC assessment rose to $540-$560/st from $500-$520/st.
One trader said Turkish mills have ramped up pricing to about $480/st CFR Houston, making Turkish HRC "a very tough call" for customers. South Korean mills have not been offering HRC as much to the US, and there were no firm Latin American options.
Another source heard there was also HRC available that would translate to about $480/st CFR Houston. Multiple trader and service center sources said they were not interested in sheet imports at the moments because prices have been driven up too high.
"The offshore mills have recently become expensive. I think they all realized North America was the only region on earth who had a decent market," the fourth service center said. "I think the market here is peaking, so I am avoiding any import buys for the next 30 to 60 days. I don't want to see any high priced steel coming in October."
One end-user was quoted CRC at $580/st and higher for loaded truck East Coast port for late August arrival. "Those numbers didn't really look attractive a couple days ago, but maybe that's changed," the end-user said.
The trader also said CRC prices are "approaching" $600/st CFR Houston, with few overseas mills without duties also having availability.
