US steel sheet pricing has strengthened this week while mills insist upon collecting at least a portion of their latest price hikes, Kallanish hears from market participants.

The spot market price range for hot rolled coil has increased to $760-810/short ton from $750-800/st last week. Cold rolled coil is up to $1,150-1,200/st, from $1,120-1,150/st the prior week.

A Midwestern service centre operator says mills are holding to recent price increases, and therefore striking bargains is challenging this week.

“Customers are the same, and the market is the same, but negotiating a deal this week was very difficult. We got one. However, they are holding tough,” says that source.

The purchasing agent for a large Midwestern distribution centre says the market needs more activity to offer a full view of what is happening.

“Competitors, customers and suppliers give me the impression that the market is rather stalled. There is a wide range of bids and offers, but receipts for April on contracts will be around $700, and mills are not offering at that level,” says that buyer.  

On 7 March, Cleveland-Cliffs increased its HRC price to $840/st. On the same day, Nucor announced its increase to a minimum base price of $825/st (see Kallanish passim).

Extending planned outages to limit supply may be one approach mills choose in order to support prices.

“Mills are publicising as much as possible their normal course of business outage," the second Midwestern distributor adds. "Some of these may be extended to reduce output. Output compared to capacity is already low. Market factors don’t line up as well for higher prices as they did in October.”

An East Coast service centre operator comments: “HRC mills have been trying to set a floor, but then they went out and made deals to fill their order books through April and trying to get into May. I would not be surprised to see an HRC increase to prop up the spot market in April contract pricing, but then come right back down.”

HRC in the equivalent week of 2023 transacted within the range of $1,000-1,150/st, and CRC was in a range of $1,180-1,200/st.

All prices are ex-works domestic mill.