The recent cold-rolled coil trade case filing will need additional support to really move steel prices, market sources said Thursday.
One service center executive called the market "lackadaisical" due to seasonal summer slowness.
On Tuesday, five major US steel producers -- AK Steel, ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, Steel Dynamics and US Steel -- filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions against cold-rolled coil imports from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Russia and the UK.
US cold-rolled coil producers are alleging dumping margins of roughly 42-320%, depending on the country of origin.
The trade case filing will help to solidify pricing, the executive said, but the market remains oversupplied. One possible solution could be capacity cuts or work stoppages later in the year as a result of negotiations between US Steel and ArcelorMittal and the United Steelworkers, he said.
A second buy-side source said the trade case filing will undoubtedly force some previous importers to switch to domestic suppliers, which could put pressure on lead times in the short term and possibly lead to price increases later in the year.
Long term, however, the US' overall manufacturing sector could suffer without a lower-cost alternative to domestic steel, he said.
"The downside to all this is we choke our manufacturing base," he said. "The years we had big steel prices were the worst years for our manufacturing base. Not that it's all cause and effect, but the protective ring around us has really hurt us."
Platts held its hot-rolled assessment steady Thursday at $460-$470/st and its cold-rolled assessment at $580-$590/st. All prices are normalized to a Midwest (Indiana) ex-works basis.
Source: platts
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