US sheet buyers saw the market steady for now on Monday, after steel mills pushed prices up aggressively the week before.
The Platts daily hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil assessments remained unchanged Monday at $500-$520/st and $680-$700/st, respectively. The midpoints were up $40/st for HRC and $60/st for CRC compared to last Monday.
Both assessments are normalized to an ex-works Midwest (Indiana) basis.
One trader said he believes there are no longer any spot transactions for domestic HRC below $500/st, and even the $500/st price "was good for about half a day." Mills are quoting $520/st now, he said. "If you give them an order while you're on the phone, they'll give you $510/st," he said, but he was confident that $520/st would be the norm next week.
All the integrated mills are offering HRC at $520/st, according to a service center source, and the other mills are all quoting at least $500/st or $510/st, he said.
Other market sources agreed that HRC prices were solidly above $500/st and probably in the $510-$520/st range.
One mill source said HRC prices were at least $500/st. Hot-dip galvanized sheet base pricing was "pushing $35/cwt ($700/st)," though he has not sold at that level yet. With lead times extending, mills do not need to fill orders at lower levels, he said.
The $50/lt increase in scrap prices in April has also given minimills an "incentive to raise [prices] and not look back," he said.
