International Flat Product Market Analysis

摘要

US service centres’ sales through July were not so high as last year – plate just about held to the level ofJuly 2014 but coil sales were 5.6 down – but for July itself they were expected to fall a little further. Theview is that customers are laying in stock in expectation of the lower availability of steel from some foreignsteelmakers in the medium term and interruptions to supplies from US Steel and ArcelorMittal. In bothgroups three-year labour contracts expire at the end of August. However, if there is any pre-cautionarybuying, it is doing little to support prices in what is, after all, usually a slack season. HR coil prices spreadover a range of $22.25-24/UScwt ($491-529/tonne) with EAF producers content with these prices while scrapprices have fallen further.