Reinforcing bar prices in the United States have hit a more than 14-month low, with market sources expecting lackluster demand, abundant supply, falling scrap costs, trade-related uncertainties and slowing business conditions to weaken prices further.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for domestic rebar fell to $33.50-34 per hundredweight ($670-680 per short ton) fob mill on Wednesday June 5, its lowest since mid-March 2018. The current assessment is down by 2.2.% from $34-35 per cwt two weeks earlier, and off by 5.9% from the more than six-year high of $35.25-36.50 per cwt reached in early March of this year. At the same time, Fastmarkets' assessment for imported rebar declined to $660-680 per ton cfr Port of Houston, down 1.5% from $670-690 per ton previously. Prices lowering across the country, further downward pressure expectedAccording to sources, rebar prices averaged $35-36 per cwt on the West Coast, $33.50-34 per cwt in the Midwest, $33-34 per cwt in Texas, $34 per cwt in Florida and $33.75 per cwt in the Northeast. "The buying activity is very slow," a southern trader told Fastmarkets, noting that...