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(AMM) No discounts as steel beam makers stay disciplined

February 25, 2010 - 21:29 GMT Location: LOS ANGELES

KEYWORDS: beam , steel , port pricing , wide flange

More than a month after the order deadline has passed on the last "port pricing" program, no new discount program has emerged to take its place as producers maintain pricing discipline on wide-flange beams.

Port pricing?previously called "foreign fighter programs"?has been a fact of life in the beam market for several months, at times resulting in spreads of as much as $100 to $120 per ton between published and distributor resale prices. But recent price cuts by the mills, as well as some drawdown in lower priced inventories, has worked to greatly narrow this discrepancy, although several service centers complain that even if the gap has been eliminated this still doesn't them leave them much room for a profit.

All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. © Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

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