Warning... 1

[NickE]

I know this is a X-post but.... the US steel market is going bonkers right now.....

Prices for HRPO 1008/1010 are going through the roof at >$32/cwt



Nick
I love materials science!

 

[bradphillips]

what has the price been historically?

 

[NickE]

We were buying HRPO 1008/1010 in master coils at around
$17-20/cwt about a year and a half ago. (note cwt means hundred weight or price per 100#) between then and now I changed jobs so Ive been out of the secondary and excess prime sheet steel markets.

Basically the US steel mills are not able to meet current demand so there is little excess on the market. The mills of course realize this and are consequently rasing prices on prime.

I've also heard that there are 5 integrated steel mills (primary production) going online in China this year. This has had the effect of raising prices for taconite and coke to unheard of levels.

Personally I think that the throttling back of US steel production over the last 4 years is now about to bite the manufacturing sector severely.

I belive that even if you want to order multiple millions of tons direct from the mill you might not be able to, they just cant make anymore steel at the moment.

nick

 

[rd400guy]

The price of all steel is going through the roof. Short answer, China. They're ramping up production but still can't meet their demand. This is good news for non-Chinese steel producers, especially the U.S. which has been hit horribly over the past few years (try to count all the mills that went bankrupt since 2001).

The bad news is, China's also buying up raw materials. If you think the increases in carbon steel prices are bad, take a look at stainless. We've seen most of our ferroalloy prices DOUBLE in the past few months. Cobalt (the last time I checked) is over $30 per pound, up from $18 just a year ago. The surcharges on stainless (IMHO) will probably be in the dollars per pound region if things stay the way they are.

If you're looking for excitement, the U.S. steel industry is where to watch. It's actually starting to heat up. We're almost DOUBLING our production versus last year. So buckle up, we're in for a wild ride.

 

[CoryPad]

More info:

http://www.asminternational.org/Con...wsArticle.htm?SMContentIndex=1&SMContentSet=0

Regards,

Cory

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