Hot-rolled steel coil prices mostly uniform in the US

Pittsburgh (Platts)--19 Jan 2017 552 pm EST/2252 GMT

Prices for hot-rolled coil in the US were heard to be similar across most producers, sources said Thursday. 

Most buyers and sellers agreed HRC prices were at $640/st from both mini-mills and integrated producers. 

"Right now $640/st is the price," one service center source said. 

He added lead times were either February or into March in some instances. In addition, a second service center source agreed HRC pricing was $640/st pretty much across the board.

A mill source said their bookings had been really strong to begin the year. He said there weren't any spot buyers taking positions at current prices, but bookings were still healthy. The source said some service centers were still in need of material to restock inventories, as "people don't have enough steel to support the business they have."

He said the strong bookings were across the board on products with HRC prices around $640/st.

At least one buy-side source noted being offered below $640/st on HRC from a mini-mill but the order size and specifics surrounding the offer were unclear. 

S&P Global Platts maintained its daily HRC and cold-rolled coil assessments at $620-$640/st and $820-$840/st, respectively. Both prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.