Steel Prices

Cliffs seeks $700/ton for HR, up $30/ton from last week

Written by Michael Cowden

July 31, 2024

Cleveland-Cliffs said on Wednesday that it would seek at least $700 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled (HR) coil.

The Cleveland-based steelmaker said it made the move “due to ongoing market developments.” The company also said the increase was effective immediately for HR orders for September.

The price hike represents an increase of $30/st from Cliffs published price of $670/st on Friday. It also marks a $25/ton increase from Nucor’s published price of $675/ton on Monday.

Note that Nucor’s price this week was up $25/ton from a week ago, according to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar.

“Cleveland-Cliffs Steel will continue monitoring several key market drivers and reserves the right to modify pricing prior to completing the spot September availability,” the company said in a letter to customers.

Recall that Nucor updates HR prices weekly. Cliffs typically updates them once a month. But as SMU wrote on Sunday in Final Thoughts, the language in the quote above left open the possibility of an increase before Cliffs’ September HR book closed.

SMU’s spot HR price stands at $640/st on average, up $5/st from last week but down $30/st from a month ago. HR prices have not been at or above $700/st since mid-June, according to our pricing records.

We switched our momentum indicator from “lower” to “neutral” yesterday following Nucor’s price increase on Monday. We also noted an increasing consensus that steel prices might have found a floor. In addition, some market sources predicted additional increases will follow Nucor’s leading move.

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He has since 2014 specialized in flat-rolled steel but has previously reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube as well as aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago - where he was involved in launching AMM's daily hot-rolled coil index, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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