May 2012 | Steel Tracker
Price slides on the HRC futures market: International Flat Product Market Analysis
USA capacity utilization rates are back at 2008 levels
If mills in the USA needed confirmation that the market would not be welcoming any price increases anytime soon then they need only look to the HRC exchanges, notably the HRC contract on the CME this week. HR futures have fallen by $35/ton from $695/ton in late May, and judging on the current bids on the exchange, there doesn’t appear to be much confidence of prices regaining the highs seen in 2011 with prices only rising as far as $673/ton for the rest of the year.
Capacity utilisation rates in the USA are almost back to levels last seen in the height of the pricing boom in 2008, currently standing at 81.1% an increase of 5.9% year-on-year. Using the same time period when comparing the price of HRC in the US domestic market reveals that prices are now $232/tonne worse off in today’s market, reaffirming...
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