Nucor and US Steel have announced they will be raising prices on US domestic HRC by a minimum of $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt) effective with all new orders, and AMUSA has set their domestic HRC minimum base pricing at $31 cwt. ($684/mt or $620/nt), ex-mill.
News of the price increase was not surprising, sources note, as rumors that mills would announce “any day” had been swirling through the marketplace.
The increase announcement is likely tied to three factors. First, the widely-used CRU Steel Price index has been showing domestic HRC prices in a slow, downward drift, and many agree that mills’ January price increase attempt “largely fell flat, unless you were a small buyer who was desperate for an order.”
Second, US HRC prices have been eroding slowly since the early part of the month, and mills “in no way wanted to see a repeat of what happened last September, when HRC pricing fell off a cliff,” a source said.
Lastly, sources have said that inched-out lead times, coupled with a forecast uptick in scrap prices during the March buy cycle, have also played a role. Whether the increase will be accepted, and if so for how long, has yet to be determined. For now, the most commonly heard spot market price for US domestic HRC has remained stable week-over-week, in the range of $28-$29 cwt. ($617-$639/mt or $560-$580/nt) ex-mill.