Steel Products Prices North America

CRU: Iron Ore Bounces Back on Steady Chinese Demand
Written by Tim Triplett
July 16, 2019
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg
Iron ore prices jumped back in the past week as Chinese iron ore demand remained steady while weak seaborne supply from Australia has kept port inventories at a low level. On Tuesday, July 16, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $122.00 /t, a $4.00 /t increase w/w.
In the past week, iron ore prices recovered as investigations of trading behavior at the Dalian Commodity Exchange only resulted in a short-term drop in iron ore prices. The underlying fundamentals show continued strong demand while mill and port inventories have remained low. In addition, the Australian maintenance period has resulted in weaker shipments, although there has been a slight recovery w/w. BHP’s shipments have remained flat while the uptick is caused by stronger supply from FMG.
The Chinese iron ore imports in June came in at a low level with only 75 Mt, a sharp m/m drop and the lowest level since February 2016. Our sources suggest that there are three reasons for this low figure – lower vessel speeds that have delayed the arrivals of Brazilian shipments, higher deliveries to other Asian countries and longer customs clearance times at Chinese ports.
We continue to expect prices to fall in the coming week. Although inventories are low, there are indications of further arrivals of vessels to China. In addition, there is an increasing risk of steelmakers reducing output due to high raw materials costs.

Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Steel Products Prices North America

Nucor slows HRC price climb with $5/ton increase
After eight weeks of double-digit price increases on hot-rolled (HR) coil, Nucor slowed the price rise this week with an increase of $5 per short ton.

Domestic CRC prices surge ahead of imports
The price spread between stateside-produced CR and imports reached its widest margin in over a year.

Evraz raises plate prices $160/ton
Evraz North America (NA) has followed Nucor and SSAB with a plate price increase of its own: up $160 per short ton (st). The increase was effective immediately for all new orders of carbon, high-strength low-alloy, and normalized and quenched-and-tempered plate products, as well as for hot-rolled coil, the steelmaker said in a letter to […]

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 […]