US Hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in the futures market remain unchanged throughout the week. Buyers in the futures market are ready to buy, but the sellers are not willing to sell as they anticipate prices to rise further in the near term.
Prices in Q2 2012 remained unchanged at $675 while Q3 and Q4 prices have increased to some extent from last week. The Chicago mercantile exchange (CME) HRC prices this week showed a cut short of trading only 380 tonnes compared to volume of 25,000 tonnes per week in February. Sources said Lack of sellers is the main reason behind the slowdown in trading activity.
Open interest for the Chicago mercantile exchange (CME) HRC also declined sharply to reach 13,347 lots as compared to 14,071lots last week i.e.a decline of 8.5%. Such a sharp decline implies that the market is liquidating and suggests that the prevailing price trend is coming to an end with the reversal in prices from downward trend, a source said.
Steel Billet prices at LME have however went up by $18/MT from the prices quoted at the beginning of the week to reach at $500/MT.
Leave a Reply