While prices for merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel again remained steady in the United States over the past month, sources pointed to seasonally weak demand, reports of discounts and potential further erosion in scrap costs as downward pressure points weighing on the spot market.
Fastmarkets AMM assessed domestic 2- x 2- x 1/4 -inch angle merchant bar at $37.05 per hundredweight ($741 per short ton) fob mill on Friday April 26, unchanged since late January. At the same time, Fastmarkets' price assessment for imported merchant bar fell to $730-740 per ton ($36.50-37 per cwt) delivered duty paid Port of Houston on Friday, down from $740-760 per ton on March 29.A trader noted fresh offers of Mexican material in Texas at $36.50-37 per cwt on a loaded-truck basis, a slight decline from the $37-38 per cwt heard one month ago. "The South seems to be worse lately," according to this trader, who heard that demand and spot prices for domestic material seemed to be fluctuating in the region. "We're not having a good selling month," he added, noting that sentiment in the region appeared to be mostly negative, with buyers reviewing inventories and cancelling orders instead of placing...