East Asian bulk ferrous scrap up on Vietnamese buying, Japanese scrap in lull

US sheet steel market sources remain worried that the lower business levels seen in July and August will not improve after the Labor Day holiday on September 5, market sources said Thursday.

"Historically election years are slow. I don't think the economy is that strong either," one buyer said. A mill lowered his hot-rolled coil offer price to $590/st from $600/st in the last week. His price for galvanized sheet and cold-rolled coil has not changed from $800/st, he said, and he is only buying what he needs from mills and other service centers.

A mill source said he has had to decrease base prices on galvanized sheet to about $805/st, but he is not getting any more business with these lower prices.

The next few weeks will be very telling as to where the market will go, he said. "Typically September is OK, and October is pretty good," he said. The mill source said he does expect domestic mills will allow prices to slip too much, especially with 2017 contract negotiations coming soon.

Preliminary talks with service centers have already begun, but they will become more formal in September and likely finalize in October.

One service center also said mills are selling HRC at an average price $580/st, though he has heard of some offers as low as $560/st for large orders that are outside of the S&P Global Platts methodology.

S&P Global Platts held its daily hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil prices flat at $580-$600/st and $790-$810/st, respectively. Both assessments are normalized to an ex-works Midwest (Indiana) basis.