Posted on 17 Mar 2020
The US sheet market outlook remains cloudy due to the on-going effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Kallanish reports.
Kallanish widened its hot-rolled range Monday to $590-640/short ton and its cold-rolled range to $800-850/st. All prices are ex-works, domestic mill.
A source at one top-tier mill says the hot-rolled floor remains at about $600/st and ranges up to $640/st for smaller orders. Generally, orders from 1,000-3,500 short tons are priced around $600-610/st, while 200-350 st orders range from $620-640/st, he says.
“Our order book remains good,” he adds. “[... There are] numerous scheduled outages in the industry beginning in April, so expect significant production cutbacks. By my count, there are six hot ends with outages upcoming in April.”
A West Coast source informs that at least some southern mini-mills were regularly granting orders for below $600/st before the coronavirus truly took hold - but “... that was a different world then.”
“I think market pricing for steel is like throwing mud on the wall,” he says. “I don’t know if mills or buyers have any idea where pricing is going.”
Source:Kallanish
