Demand remains strong, particularly in the major metropolitan markets. Hospitals, schools and other publicly funded projects fuel a significant part of the growth. An industry-wide increase recently occurred in the neighborhood of 6%, which is on top of an earlier 2018 increase. Rising scrap prices were the main driver behind the increases.
Import grooved products may be facing additional tariff action so pricing will remain volatile for the foreseeable future. Plenty of domestic capacity exists to pick up any additional demand as a result of tariff action.