Low-ball sheet offers now off the table: sources

Mar 07, 2013 | 05:00 PM | Catherine Ngai

Tags  steel sheet, steel prices, Midwest market, U.S. Steel, steel buyers, price hikes, hot-rolled sheet, steel prices Catherine Ngai

NEW YORK — Steel sheet price offers below the symbolic $600-per-ton ($30-per-hundredweight) mark appear to have dried up following the latest round of domestic price hike attempts, market sources told AMM.

The recently announced $50-per-ton increases haven’t translated into actual transaction price hikes in that amount, mill and buyer sources agreed, but it has served to eliminate many of the barrel-scraping discounts available in the days leading up to the move.

"From what I know, all the major deals are off the table," one Midwest service center source said. "Whatever deals there were—major ones, minor ones—everything is gone. The mills have been pretty disciplined."

Early last week, most steel buyers said that hot-rolled sheet could be purchased for as low as $590 per ton ($29.50 per cwt), although most spot deals were concluded closer to $610 to $620 per ton ($30.50 to $31 per cwt). This week, however, most market participants said the price is firmly at the $620 number, with some smaller orders transacted as high as $630 per ton ($31.50 per cwt) and all sub-$600 quotes now off the table.....