Final Thoughts

Spot market prices are moving and moving very quickly.

One of the service centers I communicated with today said, “I’ve not seen a market downturn quite like this one (nor the upside either), and it’s making the discovery of legit pricing quite difficult. I will say, the one constant I keep hearing is that the biggest issue is the current inability of buyers to bring meaningful tons to the table. It’s not a case of being buried in inventory, rather it’s simply a timing issue where current total positions (on-hand + on-order), are at a level where buyers aren’t able to add to that yet. I think we’re looking at mid to later March before we see buyers able to bring meaningful tons to the table for spot purchases. With respect to CR and HDG, I’m wondering if this process of unwinding may take longer, since the increased percentage of imports bought, especially for HDG, means it may take longer and get us well into spring before things normalize.”