US sheet mills fight to establish solid floor

US sheet buyers say mills are trying to hold the hot-rolled line at $540/short ton – but it’s unclear whether they will succeed, Kallanish understands.

“[Prices] are about the same,” says one Midwest buyer. “But there’s a big effort to keep hot-rolled above $540/st.”

A second buyer noted that several mills announced increases of $40/st last week, but the market did not take notice.

A source at one top-tier domestic mill says it has moved up its base price quoting on both hot-rolled and cold-rolled, though it’s too early to gauge market acceptance.

“We are now quoting $560/st hot-rolled coil and $720/st cold-rolled coil,” he says. “We will see how the transactions move from here.”

Kallanish held its hot-rolled price Monday at $540-580/st, while cold-rolled normalised down to $720-750/st. All prices are ex-works, domestic mill.