Category: Steel Prices

The spread between HRC and prime scrap prices widened considerably this month, according to Steel Market Update's most recent pricing data.

In the dynamic landscape of the steel futures market, a confluence of factors is shaping the current narrative.

US Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices continue to surge on the heels of mill increases. They have become significantly more expensive than prices for hot band imported from offshore. Domestic hot band tags moved higher for a seventh consecutive week. Imports have seen only marginal gains over the same period, according to SMU’s latest foreign vs. domestic price analysis.

Spot prices for steel sheet shot upward again this week on the heels of steep price increases announced by domestic mills last week. SMU’s hot-rolled coil price rose to $940 per ton ($47 per cwt) on average, up $75 per ton from last week and up nearly $300 per ton from a 2023 low of […]

Canadian miner Teck Resources has announced the sale of its metallurgical coal business, Elk Valley Resources, with Swiss miner Glencore becoming the majority stakeholder.

Domestic scrap prices rose in November month over month for all grades that SMU covers, market sources said.

The iron and steel foundry industries consume about 17% of the ferrous scrap in the US each year. They purchase several grades of scrap in common with steelmakers, such as shredded and turnings. But, most of the grades are much more restrictive than what larger mills require. 

Several past columns in SMU have included comments about the futures forward curve, using terms like contango and backwardation

Hot-rolled coil (HRC) tags continue to rally in the US, broadening the price disparity between domestic and imported offshore product.

Nucor Corp. announced this morning that it is joining Cleveland-Cliffs, aiming to increase prices for hot-rolled steel (HRC) and heavy gauge hot-rolled products, effective immediately.

Spot prices for steel sheet continued to shoot upward this week, which brought yet another round of price hikes.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. said on Tuesday that it had raised minimum base prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) to $1,000 per ton ($50 per cwt).

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) scrap subsidiary OmniSource has acquired a 55-acre rail-served tract near the Port of Houston to expand its metal recycling operations along the Gulf Coast.

The LME aluminum three-month price was unchanged on the morning of Nov. 3 and was seen trading at $2,235 per tonne.

The American steel industry is the backbone of the US economy and produces the cleanest steel in the world.

A large Detroit-area scrap buyer has settled scrap prices for November, with busheling, shredded, and plate and structurals (P&S) all notching gains vs. October, a scrap source told SMU.

The announcement that Republic Steel in Canton, Ohio, is going to permanently cease operations disappointed many scrap suppliers in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

US hot-rolled coil (HRC) tags moved higher again this week, widening the gap in pricing between imported offshore product.

ArcelorMittal joins U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs, pushing sheet prices higher, according to an internal commercial memo on Oct. 31.  

Sheet prices surged this week on limited spot tonnage and on the heels of steep price increases announced by domestic mills.

Cleveland-Cliffs said Tuesday that it would increase spot market base prices for carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated steel sheet.

Nucor’s plate mill group (NPG) will cut prices for as-rolled discrete plate and normalized plate by $140 per ton ($7 per cwt). The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said it would also drop prices for quenched-and-tempered plate by $80 per ton. Nucor said the lower prices would be effective with new orders received on Wednesday, Oct. 31. […]

The ferrous export market in the US has experienced several geopolitical events and natural disasters during 2023.

The active rig count for the week ended Oct. 27 inched up in the US but edged down in Canada, according to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes.

With the aluminum industry assembled in Nashville, Tenn., for the Aluminum USA 2023 conference, word was breaking of a tentative deal between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford.

These were the headlines hot off the press Wednesday night:

Steel buyers said mills are less willing to budge on spot pricing for sheet products, but plate bucked this trend, according to SMU’s most recent survey data.

Radius Recycling thinks that an end to the UAW strike could relieve pressure on a tight domestic scrap market. Scrap supplies have fallen because of lower manufacturing, construction, and demolition activity as well as “the slowing economy overall,” Radius chairman, president, and CEO Tamara Lundgren said. Inflation and higher interest rates have contributed to that […]

Sheet prices rose for a fourth consecutive week following a second wave of price hikes announced by domestic mills.

ArcelorMittal and Stelco joined last week’s move by domestic mills to push sheet prices higher.