New York (Platts)--21Dec2010/637 pm EST/2337 GMT
Bids for first-quarter Midwest US hot-rolled coil steel futures were being made $15-30/st higher Tuesday compared to Monday, reflecting the recent surge in the physical market for HRC. The front-month January contract was bid at $680/st, up $15/st; February and March were also bid at $680/st, up $20 and $30, respectively. The Platts physical-market assessment for US-made HRC gained $5/st Friday to close out a volatile week at $680/st ex-works Indiana. The $680/st Platts assessment was steady Monday and Tuesday. Last week, the spot price, as assessed by Platts, gained 12%, or $75/st, to hit the $680/st mark. Most domestic mill offers, however, are now in the $700-710/st ex-works range for HRC being delivered in February, according to both buy- and sell-side participants. Several analysts and market forecasters, however, are expecting HRC's pricing strength to come mostly in Q1 2011 before tapering off. In fact, the CME Group futures contracts for June-December 2011 also attracted higher bids early Tuesday, ranging from $10-20/st, but indicated values lower than Q1. The most recent HRC bids for June, July and August were all for $670/st, and for September-December, bids were the same at $665/st, according to CME Group website data at 12:27:35 pm EST. The front-month January contract settled at $665/st Monday, up $5 from the previous close. The website showed 10 lots, or the equivalent of 200 st were traded. --Joe Innace, joseph_innace@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Steel Markets Daily. See more information at http://bit.ly/SteelMarketsDaily