Pricing for domestically produced steel sheet is weakening in the US, with mills facing slower order flow than they would like, triggering aggressive discounting off their stated offer prices, Kallanish understands from market participants.

The price of hot rolled coil declined to a range of $820-850/short ton, from $870-890/st last week. Cold rolled coil slid to $1,070-1,110/st from $1,190-1,200/st.

US coil production “has so many players and that’s why we’ve seen the price deteriorating in that market,” says one service centre source, emphasizing the competitive environment among the mills.

Depending on mill output levels, cold roll may outperform hot roll for the rest of the year because of automotive-related demand.

 “Prices are all over the place right now,” observes one coil consumer. “For smaller orders, mills are trying to hold the line.”

That buyer says HRC already is available at less than $800/st for large spot orders in the thousands of tons.

A few mills are still attempting to offer HRC at over $900/st and cold roll well above $1,100/st. They would need mill outages to restore those loftier tags at the transaction level, according to some market participants.  

“They’re still able to make a little money right now,” the service centre source said. “But if the price gets to the point that the Nucors of the world don’t think it’s profitable, I think they are going to hibernate their mills a little bit.”

In the equivalent week of 2022, HRC transacted between $800-900/st, while CRC prices ranged $1,100-1,300/st. 

All prices are ex-works, domestic mill.