In late February/early March, slab offer prices to US re-rollers were increasing rapidly, but amid weakening flats prices and little demand, have since come back to more attractive levels. Offer prices from the usual sources--Mexico, Brazil, CIS, Japan--rose to about $530-$550/mt CFR in late February/early March, the same timeframe that US domestic flat rolled mills announced $2.50 cwt. ($55/mt or $50/nt) price increases. Some slab suppliers even tried to drive the market higher with prices heard as high as $580/mt CFR. However, the flat rolled price increases were minimally effective, driving spot prices up for about two to three weeks before returning to pre-increase levels earlier this month.
Since then, domestic flat rolled prices have actually receded to prices even below those in late February, which has taken slab offer prices down as well. Many re-rollers are were looking to reduce inventories in March and therefore did not purchase slab at the higher prices unless immediately necessary, keeping purchases no higher than in the range of $520-$525/mt CFR in Q1 and April. New offers out of the CIS for slab to the US are approximately $515/mt CFR before any negotiation--sources tell SteelOrbis there is likely room to bring those prices down slightly. Mexican offers are back down to January levels of $520/mt CFR and some mills purchased slab from Japan at $520/mt CFR up through June.