US sheet prices continued to gel last week due to the outstanding base price increase, but upward momentum seems to have slowed, Kallanish finds.

Both buy- and sell-side sources agree that $620/short ton is the most common level for hot-rolled coil.

“It does seem like most of the market is around $620/st on hot-rolled, and some transactions have trended lower closer to $610/st if there is an opportunity to take an order and ship it before year-end,” says a source at one top-tier mill.

He adds that buys at $630/st are also being made, while cold-rolled is hovering in a band between $800-820/st. The bulk of those cold-rolled buys, however, are at the bottom of the range.

“Import price offerings are moving down, but the volume of receipts continues a bit lower,” says one Midwest service centre executive. “Last week seemed to be a good week for consumer buying, so I think mills made good progress on moving lead times into 2018.”

Kallanish held its hot-rolled assessment Monday at $620-630/st and its cold-rolled assessment at $800-810/st. All prices are ex-works, domestic mill.