Steel Products Prices North America

ArcelorMittal First to Raise Flat Rolled Spot Pricing

March 18, 2014

Late on Monday afternoon, ArcelorMittal moved to raise spot flat rolled steel pricing. In an email to their customers, AM reported that, “Inventories on sheet products appear to be in balance of slightly lean compared to our second quarter consumption forecast. As a result, we are quite surprised by the recent erosion in pricing that has been reported by customers and reflected in some indexes we monitor.”

The mill went on to say, “Despite the recent drop in scrap prices, energy and transportation costs have skyrocketed and offset any cost benefit in our operations that may be incorrectly perceived.”

The mill then went on to announce new “minimum” base prices on all sheet products. The prices are to be effectively immediately. The base prices are as follows:

Hot Rolled:    $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt)
Cold Rolled:    $790 per ton ($39.50/cwt)
Galvanized:   $790 per ton ($39.50/cwt)

The email did not provide new base prices on Galvalume (but SMU assumes $39.50/cwt base).

Steel Market Update had hot rolled average pricing at $620 per ton ($31.00/cwt) and the new HRC price would indicate an increase of $40 per ton.