US flat rolled mills have indicated that the price increases established earlier in the month have stuck, and they now are looking for more.
Just two weeks after domestic mills announced flat rolled spot price increases of a minimum of $30 /nt ($1.50 cwt. or $33 /mt), they are raising prices again. After quickly filling their July books, mills are looking to capitalize on the upward momentum, with producers including ArcelorMittal USA (as reported by SteelOrbis earlier this week), Nucor Corp. and Severstal North America announcing price hikes ranging from $30 /nt to $90 /nt depending on product and mill. However, it will likely be market leader Nucor's more modest $30 /nt to $40 /nt increases that set the new market prices.
Following flat rolled price hike announcements from ArcelorMittal USA and Severstal North America issued earlier this week, Nucor Sheet Mill Group announced to customers Wednesday that due to improving order activity and increasing raw materials costs, they are implementing minimum price increases on flat rolled products effective immediately.
Accordingly, all new orders of hot rolled coil (HRC) will increase by a minimum of $30 /nt ($1.50 cwt. or $33 /mt), cold rolled coil (CRC) orders will also increase by a minimum of $30 /nt ($1.50 cwt. or $33 /mt), and hot dipped galvanized (HDG) orders will increase by a minimum of $40 /nt ($2.00 cwt. or $44 /mt).
The flat rolled price increases set by ArcelorMittal earlier this week were steeper, however. The company said it would increase HRC by $50 /nt ($2.50 cwt. or $55 /mt), CRC by $70 /nt ($3.50 cwt. or $77 /mt) and HDG by $90 /nt ($4.50 cwt. or $99 /mt). ArcelorMittal said these increase would bring market prices to: $460 /nt ($23.00 cwt. or $507 /mt) for HRC; $560 /nt ($28.00 cwt. or $617 /mt) for CRC and $580 /nt ($29.00 cwt. or $639 /mt) for HDG.
Following ArcelorMittal, Severstal North America announced Tuesday that it is also increasing prices on all new non-contract orders for flat rolled products, setting the same new prices as ArcelorMittal USA announced a day earlier (though Severstal declined to mention how much of an increase the new levels represented). But again, it will likely be Nucor's more modest increases that determine the new market prices. That said, it is still too soon to say exactly where market prices are currently at.