US sheet players are divided as to which way market momentum is headed, Kallanish reports. 

Kallanish moved its hot-rolled number Monday to $630-650/short ton, with cold-rolled at $830-850/st. All prices are ex-works, domestic mill. 

A Midwest buyer says some market sources may be inflating their reported prices with freight costs, or they may be suffering from credit restrictions. “Or they are loaded with inventory and hope to create a [better] market price,” he says. “It’s a very strange market.” 

A second Midwest buyer says hot-rolled deals at $600/st are “...hyped, but very, very few and for minor tonnage.” He attributes the perceived declines in the face of mill increases to scrap pressure. “Hot-rolled coil makers need lower priced scrap,” he says. 

A source at one top-tier mill, however, says one-off and index minus deals are colouring buyer-reported prices. 

“We have transacted late last week as much as $660/st, with many more transactions at $630-640/st,” he says. “The contract [index-minus] purchases should not drive the spot market reports, but they are, and incremental purchases are getting misrepresented as spot when they in fact are just add-ons to an existing contract.”