Galvanized and cold-rolled steel prices in the United States held steady while market participants pondered whether those prices would be propelled higher by the latest round of mill hikes and the demonstrated strength in hot-roll pricing.
Sheet mills announced a round of $40-per-short-ton ($2-per-hundredweight) price increases on Wednesday January 8. Those hikes were not yet reflected in transaction data by Thursday January 9. "It's too early to see the $2 price increase. It's wait and see," a southern distributor said. "On the cold roll, that's the one product that every single mill has plenty of capacity on."Two mill sources said lead times have pushed out to March, and they anticipate that distributors will support higher prices because they don't have enough...