Futures
Hot Rolled Futures: Another Leg Down
Written by Bradley Clark
December 18, 2014
Hot rolled coil futures took another leg down over the past couple of weeks as spot softness continues to weigh down the terminal market. The forward curve has moved down $5-10 per ton depending on the period for calendar 15 months. Q1 and Q2 is now trading close to $600 per ton and 2nd half 2015 at $605.
These levels represent a breakdown on the recent critical support level of $620 which has held for most of the past year. It feels that the market is capitulating to softer prices for the foreseeable future and at levels below 2014 averages. The ever increasing import levels offered more competitively due to weak global raw material costs has begun to close the spread between world and domestic steel prices. Volumes continue to be decent with over 10,000 tons trading the past 2 weeks.
The market should begin to slow in terms of volumes trading over the holiday period.
Below are two interactive graphics of the HRC and BUS (scrap) futures curve, but they can only be seen when you are logged into the website and reading the newsletter online. If you need any assistance logging in or navigating the website, contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or 800-432-3475.
{amchart id=”73″ HRC Futures Forward Curve}
{amchart id=”74″ BUS Futures Forward Curve}
Bradley Clark
Read more from Bradley ClarkLatest in Futures
HR futures: Support fails as market slows ahead of election
After a relatively stable and boring September, CME hot-rolled coil (HRC) futures have been on the move lower thus far in October. Since Sept. 30, the November and December futures have declined $63 and $65, respectively, with the curve’s contango steepening.
CRU: Open interest in December HR futures contract surges
CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores shares insight into the hot-rolled coil futures market.
HR futures: How many ways to stay the same?
While the English language is vast, there is not an endless number of ways to say, “no major changes have transpired.” And if anyone has been tasked with talking about steel price changes in physical and futures US domestic steel market over the last four months, they are probably stretching their ability to its limit.
CRU: HRC futures market prices in rosy Q4’24 and 2025
CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores shares with SMU his analysis of the hot-rolled coil futures market.
HR futures: Higher on news of Cliffs furnace idling
It had been a relatively quiet and steady CME HRC futures market since the end of August. That was upended by Thursday’s news that instead of a two-week maintenance outage, Cleveland-Cliffs would hot idle the C-6 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works for an uncertain period of time. The CME October HRC contract, HRCV4, gained $22 per short ton (st) on the day to provisionally close at $744/st on Thursday. The first and second quarter futures strips of 2025 gained $25/st and $24/st to provisionally settle at $823/st and $829/st, respectively.