Steel Products Prices North America

SMU Hot Rolled Range Adjusted: Average Drops to $460
Written by John Packard
August 13, 2015
Steel Market Update (SMU) continued to gather pricing information on the market after our publication of our flat rolled steel price ranges and indices on Tuesday evening. We have found an abundance of information which points to the low end of the range being $440 and not $450 as we published on Tuesday. We have, therefore, adjusted our HRC range to $440 to $480 per ton with an average of $460 per ton. This is $5 per ton lower than what we produced on Tuesday and $5 per ton lower than what we saw last week.
We are hearing from our buyer sources that the mill lead times are quite short on hot rolled coil and the offers of $440-$460 are fairly common for any kind of reasonable tonnage. We understand those mills associated or having had a large percentage of business with the energy markets are the most aggressive in hot rolled.
We continue to reference Momentum as being Neutral. There are signs in the marketplace that momentum is weakening and in a “normal” market prices would be dropping from here. What is not normal are the slew of trade suits and labor negotiations. These two items appear to be enough to keep Momentum at bay, at least for the moment.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America

Nucor lifts HR coil to $820/ton
Nucor has increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil for a fourth consecutive week.

Nucor pushes HR spot price to $790/ton
Nucor increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil to $790 per short ton (st) on Monday, Feb. 10 – a $15/st bump vs. last week. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company has raised its weekly CSP by $40/st over the past three weeks after maintaining tags at $750/st since Nov. 12, according to SMU’s […]

ArcelorMittal Dofasco increases spot sheet prices
ArcelorMittal Dofasco is raising spot sheet prices by CA$100 per ton (US$70/ton). The Hamilton, Ontario-based flat rolled steelmaker told customers the increase is effective immediately for all new orders. It did not specify to what level this brings its base prices but noted its right to re-quote previous but unconfirmed orders. “We will continue to […]

Nucor raises HR spot price to $775/ton
Nucor increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil to $775 per short ton (st) on Monday, Feb. 3. The $15/st week-on-week (w/w) rise marks the first back-to-back increases in the steelmaker’s weekly CSP since last August, according to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar. Nucor’s joint-venture subsidiary California Steel Industries (CSI) is also up […]

Nucor raises HR spot price to $760/ton
Nucor increased its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil to $760 per short ton (st) on Monday, Jan. 21. The $10/st week-on-week (w/w) rise marks the first increase in the CSP since Nov. 12. According to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar, the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker held the weekly price at $750/st for 11 […]