Several factors have caused U.S. steel prices to increase. Prices of U.S. flat steel products increased due to shortages of raw materials in Europe. The increase in prices still continues.
According to U.S. Department of Commerce data, steel imports decreased due to increasing steel prices. Hot rolled steel imports decreased by 19% to 2.25 million tons, while hot dip galvanized coil (HDG) imports decreased by 4.7% to 2.54 million tons. Galvanized sheet volume decreased by 37% y-o-y and hot sheet imports decreased by 35%.
U.S. service centers reduced their contractual volume obligations with factories by 10-30% following expectations of an increase in spot deliveries of flat products. At the same time, in order not to be caught unprepared for expensive stocks, they reduced their stocks to levels where they would not normally work.
Steel mills have kept their utilization levels at 75% or less since mid-October 2022. For the South Central West, steel from the factory increased by 83% to $1,150/st.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hikes have yet to relieve the hot economy. Steel demand is expected to remain stable until the end of this year.
Additional steel began to decrease following a decline in the utilization levels of steel mills. A shortage of inventory at U.S. service centers has left the vast majority of customers with certain steel products in stock.
The U.S. market has been heavily affected by many short-term steel mill outages. It is estimated that more than 330,000 tons of crude steel will be lost from the market.
The improvement of the steel market recession will depend on the performance of steel mills and the production rates of ste
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