US steel coil prices fell slightly Thursday, with buyers saying some mills are becoming increasingly hungry and willing to cut deals.
One top-tier mill source said the bulk of his hot-rolled transactions were being done between $670-680/st, while another top-tier mill source said hot-rolled deals had recently been done from $660-695/st. The same source said a cold-rolled deal had been done for $805/st, and he remarked that most CRC quotes are now around $800/st.
Earlier in the week, a third-top tier mill source said both HRC and CRC pricing was largely stable, though at least some deals were being done near the list prices of $700/st and $830/st, respectively.
Additionally, Platts heard one unconfirmed cold-rolled offer at $770/st. As an unconfirmed outlier, it was not taken into consideration in Thursday's CRC assessment.
One buyer described both CRC and hot-dipped galvanized pricing as "pretty firm" and said $680/st was the prevailing price for HRC. HRC deals below $680/st could be done, he said, but purchasing managers making such buys within Platts' volume specification of up to 500 st were "doing a really good job."
Overall, he said, absent any large influx of imports or unexpected dips in scrap, the market should fall about $10-20/st and then remain rangebound.
"Everyone's waiting for the shoe to drop one way or the other, and it'd be fine for me if nothing dropped at all," he said.
