Steel Products Prices North America

Brazil's Section 232 Slab Quota Resets Higher
Written by Michael Cowden
January 5, 2021
Brazil’s annual Section 232 slab quota has reset, a move that is likely to at least partially relieve a supply squeeze that has sent U.S. sheet prices to their highest point in more than 12 years.
Brazil’s Section 232 slab quota for 2021 is approximately 3.86 million tons, according to information from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department for Homeland Security.
The annual quota is divvied up into quarterly limits. And Brazil’s first-quarter quota limit is roughly 1.16 million tons, per CBP data.
That’s significant because it is nearly a 20-fold increase from the 66,139-ton fourth-quarter limit set by the Trump administration. That low figure came after an initial fourth quarter quota of 385,809 tons was substantially reduced, according to an August press release from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The quota reduction was put in place following a summer in which steel U.S. hot-rolled coil prices fell to around $20/cwt ($400 per ton)–or briefly below hot-rolled coil prices in China. U.S. prices have roughly doubled since and are now above $50/cwt for the first time since the fall of 2008.
The additional slab supply should come as a relief to slab re-rollers such as California Steel Industries (CSI), JSW Steel USA, NLMK USA and AMNS Calvert.
U.S. mills have come to rely heavily on Brazilian slab because it is cheaper than semi-finished products from other countries. That’s because Brazil is subject to a quota rather than the 25% Section 232 tariff that other major slab-exporting nations, notably Russia, must pay.
By Michael Cowden, michael@steelmarketupdate.com

Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest 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 […]