Final Thoughts

As flat rolled steel prices move higher, we need to remember that prior to the price increases there was an abnormally large spread between hot rolled based prices and those of cold rolled and coated. Instead of being $100-$140 per ton, they had been running as high as $180-$200 per ton. The spread was created due to a weak hot rolled market. From my perspective, it appears the HRC market is moving higher and shrinking the price premium being charged for CR and GI/AZ products. Again, from my perspective, this is a good thing and healthy for the market.

When looking at imports for the month of October, you will see a jump. This should be expected due to October being the beginning of the fourth quarter and the first month more imports can come in from those countries with quotas (especially slabs from Brazil). It is interesting to note that even though there is a surge in slabs (semi-finished if you are looking at the government import license data), they are not as high as they were in January, April and July of this year. Some of the slabs appear to be coming in during the month of November from Brazil based on the data. I would expect slab imports in December to be minimal.