Hot Rolled Futures Hold Steady in the Face of an Uncertain Physical Market

Written by: Bradley Clark, Director of Steel Trading, Kataman Metals

The HRC futures market has been exceptionally quiet over the past few weeks with almost no volume trading as the recent price hikes, uncertainty of pricing going forward and middling futures pricing has led most traders to sit on the sidelines awaiting the next price move.   The forward curve has seen a bit better bids with the August value around $645, September $640 and further out the q1 value around $625. All these values are up around $5 from the previous week. It does feel that more offers are starting to build up as we get to the end of the week on September and q4 periods as the sustained price levels are starting to look a bit shaky.