After weeks of gradually slumping prices, flat steel products in the US stabilized in the past week while long products are just beginning to soften.
For hot and cold rolled coils, the average spot price range held steady, although transactions on the top end of the range became fewer and farther between. Some transactions were even heard of below the range, when large tonnage orders were dangle in front of mill sales people. Despite the downtrend in prices, service centers continued to hold off as long as they could before making purchases-demand for HRC and CRC is steady, but not substantially improving at this point.
The same can be said for the coated market-prices remained neutral in the last week, even though production is still not balanced with demand. "Mills are just hungry for the bone," commented one West Coast service center, noting that almost record short lead times have buyers knowing they have the full upper hand.
Spot prices for domestic cut-to-length plate also moved sideways over the course of two weeks, but purchasing activity was slightly less than for HRC and CRC. Plate customers are primarily making purchases to plug holes in their inventories, and are not interested in high stockpiles heading toward the end of the year. The forecast for US domestic plate remains neutral-to-slightly-downward through mid-to-late November.
Downstream from flats, the US pipe market saw less frequent and less consistent bookings in the last couple weeks, a trend that has been ongoing for about two months. Although pipe producers are trying to keep prices as firm as possible, spot prices are currently flexible in light of softening flat coil prices, even for orders that would not be typically considered "significant" tonnage.
As for other longs, the recent neutral price move announced by US rebar mills-welcomed at first by distributors and fabricators-slowly began to soften. Already, most transactions are being concluded in the lower end of the official mill asking range, and there is wide speculation that spot prices will dip below the range in the upcoming months if demand for rebar doesn't improve.
Wire rod prices also softened over the last week, dropping by about $1.00 cwt. to most customers. However, the quiet decrease has not translated into downstream products such as wire mesh, mainly because many mesh producers have inventory made from rod purchased after the September-announced price increase, and they are reluctant to respond to this month's scrap decrease with lower mesh prices.