US hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices jumped this week as tight supply and extended lead times help mills achieve their price targets.
The Argus US HRC Midwest and southern assessments rose by $50/short ton (st) to $750/st ex-works from the prior week and are now up by $90/st from their September lows.
Prices remained down by 38pc from a high of $1,200/st in April.
Integrated steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs set an HRC price minimum of $750/st on 27 September.
The average mill lead time for HRC edged up to 6.9 weeks from 6.8 weeks with most deliveries pushing toward the late-November timeframe. Lead times have been resilient in the last three weeks, staying at their highest levels since early-April, indicating that steelmakers have been able to keep their books filling out deeper into the year.
Mills were successful in making transactions of less than 1,000st at $750/st, with offers moving up and away from lows of $700/st.
One buyer reported being offered 2,000st at $740/st from multiple Midwest mills.
Mill order books were reportedly beginning to fill for December, but buyers were skeptical that trends will continue with outages set the end by November.
Pricing for the rest of the year will hinge on how many contract tons are booked for the remaining months and if the mills find themselves with available production as the US market moves into the typically slower holiday season.
Market participants continued to watch the slowly growing strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union against the Big 3 auto companies Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis. Seven plants are now being struck, with the UAW making a previously unannounced strike move against Ford's Kentucky truck plant last week. That strike hits some of Ford's full size pickup truck and SUV production, a first in the nearly five week strike.
The Argus HRC import assessment increased by $20/st to $700/st ddp Houston. Higher offers have come from greater domestic interest in foreign tons in Asia and Brazil, but longer lead times mean tonnage remains limited, importers have said.
Plate
The Argus US plate assessment fell by $25/st to $1,405/st ex-works on lower mill offers. Steelmaker Nucor's attempts to hold prices at $1,530/st continues to be undermined by other plate mills in the US, with smaller mills reported as low as $1,340-1,380/st and large mills between $1,440-1,480/st. Buyers continued to complain resale prices are below mill replacement costs, and have been for most of the year.
Direct selling by mills continues to be reported, with one service center saying it caused them to lose a transaction.
Demand is reported to be steady, but there were some signs it is slowing. A buyer reported that some wind farm projects that were quoted years ago but then got delayed are now under threat because of rising raw material costs. Infrastructure demand also has not picked up like many had thought it would have been by now.
Lead times were flat at 4.5 weeks as mills continue to work to fill their November order books.
Delivered plate pricing fell by $12/st to $1,438/st.
