US HRC: Prices rise, show little sign of slowing

Spot hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices continued to rise as limited sales and offers pushed prices above $1,800/short ton (st).

The Argus weekly domestic US HRC Midwest assessment rose by $20/st to $1,840/st ex-works. Lead times extended to 7-9 weeks from 6-9 weeks.

The Argus weekly domestic US HRC south assessment increased by $20/st to $1,840/st.

The baseline for HRC pricing has solidly hit $1,800/st, with two sales of 100st and one of 1,000st reported at those levels, with another buy of 500st reported at $1,870/t. Numerous offers and assessments were reported between $1,820/st and $1,860/st.

Spot tons remain limited, and many service centers continued to work on buying as much through their contracts as possible.

[Steel Dynamics (SDI) today confirmed that the startup of its new 3mn st/yr flat-rolled mill in Sinton, Texas, would be delayed](SDI) to mid-November and would only produce 100,000st in the fourth quarter.

The spread between #1 busheling scrap delivered US Midwest mills and HRC selling prices rose by 1.6pc to $1,266/st from $1,246/st the week before, rising to a new record high spread.

The spread is nearly six times higher than a year ago, when it was $212/st.

The Argus weekly domestic US cold-rolled coil (CRC) assessment rose by $10/st to $2,050/st, while the hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) assessment increased by $30/st to $2,050/st.

Lead times for CRC slipped to 6-11 weeks from 8-10 weeks, while HDG lead times rose by 10-12 weeks from 9-11 weeks.

The CME HRC Midwest futures market edged higher in the last week. September futures pricing rose slightly by $7/st to $1,770/st, while October pricing edged up by $2/st to $1,720/st. November pricing rose by $10/st to $1,685/st, while December futures pricing jumped by $50/st to $1,650/st. January futures pricing rose by $38/st to $1,581/st.

HRC import prices into Houston increased by $20/st to $1,600/st ddp, as multiple sources reported buying thousands of tons of imported HRC from Canada and Europe at $1,600/st for September and October delivery.

Plate

The Argus weekly domestic US plate assessment rose by $13.25/st to $1,588.25/st delivered while lead times fell to 7-8 weeks from 9-12 weeks.