There were limited offers or transactions available outside the current S&P Global Platts' hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel coil assessments, sources said on Friday.
Spot prices for HRC were off of $640/st, according to one buy-side source. There was an exception as the Cleveland market remained a bit tighter and mills supplying the area were maintaining prices closer to the $640/st level. However, anything away from the Cleveland market was closer to $620/st out of mini-mills and large volume transactions might be able to push a little below.
The buy-side source's analysis of the Cleveland market sounded about right, according to a service center source. However, he was inactive in the spot market so did not have any first-hand feedback regarding prices but was curious to know which mills were discounting HRC from $640/st or below $620/st.
It was "very quiet," according to a second service center source. Despite the lull, he said he was not receiving many calls from mills looking to fill holes in their order books. For HRC $620-$640/st is "where everything is" but said CRC prices could come under pressure as there was a lot of foreign material inbound.
The market remained quiet, a second buy-side source echoed and he was still paying $620/st for HRC but activity was slow.
Platts maintained its daily HRC and CRC assessments at $620-$640/st and $820-$840/st, respectively. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
