This week’s $10/nt ($11/mt) rise in the weekly Consumer Spot Price (CSP) by US steelmaker Nucor was not the result of the recent 50 percent import tariffs on flat rolled steel, a Nucor representative told an audience at this week’s SMU Steel Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.
“This week’s $10/nt CSP price increase was not the result of tariffs at all,” Noah Hanners, executive vice president of sheet products for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corporation, said in response to audience questions at the completion of a fireside chat session hosted by Steel Market Update. “Rather, the CSP price increase this week was the result of where we see the markets going,” Hanners added. “We see positive things regarding the demand for flat steel. The backlog of orders for flat steel remains good.”
Nucor’s CSP - the posted price it charges for hot rolled coils across all of its mills - increased for the first time in three weeks to $875/nt ($965/mt), or $43.75/cwt., up from $865/nt ($954/mt) or $43.25/cwt. one week ago. Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) base price also rose $10/nt to $935/nt ($1,031/mt), or 46.75/cwt., up from $925//nt ($1,020/mt) or $46.25/cwt.
Hanners’ bullish outlook for flat steel pricing runs counter to weekly spot reports from SteelOrbis market insiders noting continued declines this week in flat steel pricing as a result of a September industry outlook for steady to lower US scrap prices next month and lower demand expectations from US mills beginning in September as yearly mill maintenance operations that last through November begin.
This week, the SteelOrbis hot rolled coil spot price average declined another $5/nt to on average $820/nt ($904/mt or $41.00/cwt). Preceding this week’s Nucor CSP and CSI price increases, SteelOrbis data show that spot market HRC pricing declined to the lowest levels since spot prices moved sharply higher in the second and third week of February in reaction to strong scrap pricing and announcements from the US Trump administration of renewed 25 percent Section 232 steel and aluminum import tariffs on Canada and Mexico which would begin on March 4. The tariffs were later doubled to 50 percent on June 4, and an expanded list of more than 400 steel derivative products were added to the 50 percent tariffs list on August 15.
And while current demand for flat steel remains unremarkable, some market insiders told SteelOrbis this week that spot HRC may be “near the bottom of recent price ranges,” with a near-term price expectation not expected to dip below $800/nt ($882/mt) or $40/cwt.
The yearly SMU Steel Summit, which included panel discussions from key steel market executives, included sessions on steel market pricing, the US industry demand outlook, continuing steel overcapacity issues with China, as well as sessions on navigating trade in an era of enhanced US tariff uncertainty. The three-day conference has become a popular networking event for global steel market professionals.