Prices for cold-rolled and galvanized sheet in the United States held steady week on week before domestic mills announced a fresh round of price increases on Thursday May 21.
North American automotive plants are mostly producing again, and financial markets showed marked improvement in the second half of May after closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic began easing. There is potential for the mills to win Thursday's increases if evidence emerges that sheet demand from the manufacturers mostly rebounds during the current period of reduced steel production, according to market participants. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US held at $34 per hundredweight ($680 per ton) on Thursday, flat since May 7.Fastmarkets' price assessment for hot-dipped galvanized (base) steel coil, fob mill US was identically unchanged at $34 per cwt.Both prices started the year at...