Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the posted base price it charges for hot-rolled coils (HRC) across all of its regional mills- was reported higher once again for a ninth week today, posting at $1,015/nt, ($1,119/mt) or $50.75/cwt., on an FOB mill basis, up from $1,010/nt ($1,113/mt), or $50.50/cwt., one week earlier.
Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) base price, also rose another $5/nt this week to $1,065/nt ($1,174/mt), or $53.75/cwt., FOB mill, up from $1,060/nt ($1,168/nt), or $53.00/cwt., seven days ago.
And while this week’s Nucor CSP increased to a lesser extent than two weeks earlier, when the CSP spiked $15/nt, market insiders said many of the same supportive fundamentals remain in play for HRC, among them, strong US scrap prices, low imports as a result of ongoing Section 232 steel tariffs, and continued reports of full order books and backlogs spurred by longer lead times at domestic steel mills.
While Nucor CSP and CSI prices are backed by reported lead times of 3-5 weeks, flat steel market insiders told SteelOrbis spot HRC lead times currently are closer to 6-10 weeks.
While March US scrap prices settled sideways or flat to February pricing, between December and March, Midwest Ohio Valley shredded scrap, most often quoted as a primary input in US flat steel production, increased from on average $385-390/gt, ($390-395/mt), on a delivered to mill basis, to $445-450/gt ($452-457/mt), delivered, a rise of more than 15 percent. April scrap currently is expected to settle sideways to potentially $10-20/gt less on a delivered to mill basis, mostly the result of lower mill demand during April when some local flat mills will be headlong into spring maintenance operations, cutting monthly demand for scrap. Better weather also is expected to boost inflows into scrap yards and increase scrap processing operations, recently hampered by extreme cold across much of the US.
US spot supplies of finished steel have remained under pressure recently from a lack of steel imports, the result of ongoing 50 percent Section 232 steel import tariffs, put in place by US President Trump in early June.
In weekly HRC spot markets, the SteelOrbis HRC price average price closed the week ended March 13 up $9/nt from week-earlier levels at $1,010/nt, ($1,113/mt), or $50.50/cwt., on a Midwest FOB loaded truck ex-mill basis.
On the import side, based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported steel import permit applications for the month of February totaled 1,651,000 net tons (nt). This was a 5.2 percent increase from the 1,569,000 permit tons recorded in January and unchanged from the January final imports total of 1,650,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in February was 1,189,000, down 4.8 percent from the final imports total of 1,249,000 mt in January. For the first two months of 2025 (including February SIMA permits and January final imports), total and finished steel imports were 3,300,000 nt and 2,438,000 nt, down 37.9 percent and 38 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2025.
