Steel Products

U.S. Steel Announces New $50 per Ton Price Increase

February 27, 2013

Steel Market Update (SMU) started receiving calls by late this afternoon advising us to prepare for a new round of price increase announcements. This afternoon, United States Steel Corporation (USS) put out a letter under the signature of RY Kopf, General Manager North American Flat-Rolled Marketing, advising the various General Managers of Sales of an immediate change to USS spot pricing.

According to the memo seen by SMU, “Effective immediately, base pricing for all new Flat-rolled products spot orders is increased by a minimum of $50 USD per net ton. This increase is applicable to all open quotes and/or negotiations where an agreement is yet to have been concluded, and pricing extras, as published on our corporate web site, will continue to be fully applied.” From a midwest service center.

As many in the industry know, it is unusual for U.S. Steel to publically publish their price announcements preferring to communicate their intentions with their customers verbally.

This is the second price increase by U.S. Steel this year. Shortly after the AK Steel announced their price increase in late January, USS followed with a $50 price increase. At that time the target for hot rolled was reported to be $650 per ton. There are no specific base prices referenced with this particular announcement. We will continue to watch for signs of specific pricing direction in the days ahead as well as reaction from other domestic mills.