Another round of flat-rolled steel price increases Tuesday, announced by Nucor and NLMK, have buyers expecting others to follow.
The price-hike attempts come on the heels of increases in December.
Nucor Tuesday said it would be increase hot-rolled coil prices by $20/st, while cold-rolled and galvanized coil price would be up $30/st, effective immediately. In addition, NLMK announced it would be increasing prices by $30/st citing strength in its sales markets and extending lead times.
"I am hearing lead times are getting stronger," a buy-side source said citing jumps in certain areas for one major integrated mill, while other integrated mills are also improving. However, at least one mini-mill still remains short, he noted, adding he was "not sure the current environment is built to last."
One service center source agreed that pricing momentum this week wasn't the same as last week, prior to seeing the increases. He said mills were pushing hard for $400/st HRC in the spot market but taking orders between $380-$390/st. One mill was quoting higher at $410/st but did not want to lose an order and would compete with the market, he said. The service center source was also skeptical if another mill had been able to achieve pricing above $380/st.
However, one producer was holding the line last week on $400/st HRC as their lead times pushed into the second week of February, he said.
A second service center source said Nucor?s price differentiation between products was smart as CRC and coated products are "going to be strong but HRC products, especially [for] gas and oil are still struggling." He said HRC doesn't have the clout to stick at up $30/st and wasn't sure about $20/st either.
Spot prices for HRC were between $400-$420/st for the service center as he did not see any of his mill suppliers at $380/st. He added that CRC and HDG substrate were around $520/st. The service center source anticipated limited Q1 spot buying as he had purchased "so much material at the end of the year."
Platts maintained its daily HRC and CRC assessments at $380-$400/st and $520-$530/st, respectively. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
