US HRC: Prices remain under pressure, fall

US hot rolled coil (HRC) prices fell this week as sellers and buyers continued to report lower bids and offers and little changed after the biggest regional conference wrapped up last week.

The Argus weekly domestic US HRC Midwest and southern assessments fell by $10/short ton (st) to $750/st ex-works. HRC prices have dropped by 38pc since the peak of $1,200/st in April to their lowest since mid-January.

Repeatable HRC bids and offers were reported between $740-760/st, with one buyer expecting to receive offers of $720/st for 500st while wanting $700/st.

The market was relatively quiet in the aftermath of the SMU Steel Summit, which wrapped up nearly a week ago. No public mill price announcements have followed the conference, which brought out a large chunk of the industry to Atlanta; a year earlier following the conference, Cleveland-Cliffs issued a $75/st increase.

The market impact of upcoming mill outages in September and October — representing 1mn st of cut production — is still yet to be known as August wraps up.

Service centers broadly have reduced their buying ahead of a possible strike in the US automotive industry, which, if it occurred, would likely cut steel consumption.

A possible auto strike looms as the biggest concern for the US steel industry, with a 14 September deadline for a new contract approaching quickly. The United Auto Workers (UAW) has threatened to strike against US automakers Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis.

There is a broad consensus among the steel industry that some type of strike will occur, but it is unclear if the UAW will strike at one or all three of the automakers, and how long such a strike would last, leaving the depth of the impact unknown.

The weekly Argus US HRC Midwest lead time average was flat at 4-5 weeks, unchanged despite the upcoming mill outages.

The weekly Argus US HRC import price was flat at $700/st on a ddp Houston basis, with foreign prices reported to remain flat.

Plate

The Argus weekly domestic US ex-works plate assessment remained flat at $1,570/st as the market waits for electric arc furnace steelmaker Nucor to announce its next plate prices for October.

Lead times fell to 5-6 weeks from six weeks.

The Argus US delivered plate assessment was flat at $1,610/st.