Domestic US hot-rolled coil (HRC) spot prices fell again this week as many buyers stayed on the sidelines as Covid-19-related closures continued to roil the market.

The Argus weekly domestic US HRC index fell by $18/short ton (st) to $521.50/st ex-works Midwest on nine indications from sell- and buy-side sources.

Lead times slipped to 3-4 weeks from five weeks as mills struggle to book new business.

Coronavirus-related shutdowns continue to ripple across the US steel industry, with auto plant idlings particularly hitting steel demand.

Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced yesterday that it plans to begin restarting its plants in Canada and the US on 4 May. Honda said it would extend its shutdown of its plants in Canada and the US through 1 May.

Many market participants hope that automakers come back at the beginning of May, but worry that supply crunches could soon follow due to the large amount of steel production that has been taken offline.

Initial April prices for ferrous scrap out of Detroit indicated prices falling by $30/gross ton (gt) for prime scrap and $50/gt for obsolete scrap. The rest of the US ferrous scrap market has yet to trade.

ArcelorMittal is the latest to idle a blast furnace, taking one of the two blast furnaces at its Cleveland integrated mill offline, sidling at least another 1.5mn st/yr of steel production off the market. All told more than 5.5mn st/yr of flat rolled steel production has been removed in the last three weeks due to a variety of idlings by ArcelorMittal, AK Steel and US Steel.

BlueScope is delaying by six months the expansion of its North Star mill in Ohio due to coronavirus impacts on the Australian steelmaker’s finances.

Nucor’s direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Trinidad and Tobago is shut down due to government orders related to coronavirus. The company said its steel operations are not impacted by the shutdown. The US imported nearly 1.9mn st of DRI from Trinidad in 2019, up by 12pc from the prior year, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.

Pipemaker Vallourec is laying off a third of its employees in North America, and steelmaker Evraz is laying off 230 people from its re-rolling mill in Portland, Oregon.

HRC import prices into Houston were flat at $580/st ddp.

After recovering somewhat in the prior week futures prices in the CME HRC futures market mostly lost ground over the last week, with May prices falling by $23/st to $472/st. June futures prices declined by $16/st to $469/st, while July prices fell by $8/st to $477/st. August prices fell by $8/st to $488/st, and September futures prices dropped by $10/st to $500/st. October HRC futures prices inched up by $2/st to $520/st, while November prices settled up by $2/st, also at $520/st. December HRC prices rose by $8/st to $527/st.

Summary of market activity heard by Argus: