Hot band prices slide; China still bucks trend

Dec 10, 2008 | 09:49 AM | Scott Robertson

Hot-rolled band continues to lose ground, with only China defying the global trend of falling prices.

In the United States, buyers remain largely absent from the market, reflected in an 11.8-percent drop in U.S. hot-rolled band prices. SteelBenchmarker's Dec. 8 data, released Wednesday, put U.S. hot band at $614 per tonne ($557 per net ton), f.o.b. mill, down $82 from $696 per tonne ($631 per ton) two weeks earlier—the ninth consecutive drop. Current prices are off 49 percent from the $1,203-per-tonne ($1,091-per-ton) peak established July 28 but remain 9.6 percent higher than the low of $560 per tonne ($508 per ton) set Aug. 13, 2007.

The decline in U.S. hot band pricing came as buyer sources this week reported that prices had inched up during the past few days on tight supplies and rising scrap costs. Those sources pegged U.S. hot-rolled sheet prices at about $560 per ton on the spot market, up about $20 per ton from late last week.....