Steel Products Prices North America
Foreign Steel Flat Rolled Trending Lower
Written by John Packard
October 24, 2017
The trend for foreign steel imports into the United States continues to be right at 3 million net tons for the month of October.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) updated license data collected for the month of October through today, Oct. 24. We take the license data for the first 24 days of the month. We then convert it into a daily rate and expand it for the entire 31-day month. The results are shown in the table below.
Imports of most flat rolled products continue to slip compared to their 12-month and 3-month moving averages.
Hot rolled is now trending toward a 167,000-ton month, which if correct will be the lowest level seen since February 2017 when the U.S. imported 111,731 net tons.
Cold rolled imports are also trending lower, now expected to come in around 194,000 tons. This is lower than the 12-month moving average of 222,727 tons and 3-month moving average of 250,415 tons. The last time we saw CR imports at the trending level was December 2016 with 189,960 net tons.
Galvanized is also trending much lower than its 12-month and 3-month moving averages. Our expectation is for galvanized to end the month of October around 230,000 tons. The last time GI imports were 230,000 tons or less was January 2016 at 214,593 net tons.
Other metallic, most of which is Galvalume, is trending toward the 81,000-ton level, which is below both its 12-month and 3-month moving averages. The last time AZ was less than 81,000 tons was November 2016 at 78,532 net tons.
It will be interesting to see if the bloom is off the rose and flat rolled imports continue to shrink from here. If so, it could help to eventually strengthen domestic mill order books once inventories are worked down.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America
CRU: Longs pricing trends diverge in North, South America
Most longs prices in the US were unchanged this month, except for rebar, which declined by $1.50/cwt ($30/short ton) m/m. While end-use demand is stable, inventories are well-stocked, keeping purchases limited. Domestic availability is sufficient to meet current demand, hindering the appetite for imported material. Meanwhile, prices for scrap remained under pressure in June, with […]
Nucor cuts plate prices by $125/ton, cites ongoing competition
Nucor Corp. announced that its plate mill group would cut prices for as-rolled, discrete, and normalized plate with the opening of its August order book.
Nucor cuts HR price for fourth straight week
Nucor lowered its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil by another $10 per short ton (st) for the first week of July. The steelmaker said in a letter to customers on Monday that its CSP base price for the week will be $670/st for all of its sheet mills with the exception of California Steel Industries (CSI).
Cliffs sets $720/ton HR price with opening of August books
Cleveland-Cliffs on Tuesday announced its monthly hot-rolled (HR) coil price of $720 per short ton (st) with the official opening of its August order book. The rate is down from last month’s price of $800/st.
CRU: Demand weakness continues to weigh on global sheet markets
Demand has remained persistently weak across the globe for sheet steel, weighing on prices. US HR coil prices fell the furthest this week as high-volume, low-priced deals were transacted as mills looked to fill order books and competed with one another amid relative demand weakness. Meanwhile, European prices were also down due to low demand […]