Nucor’s (CSP) -the price charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- increased for a fourth week today following an earlier 11-week period of price stability, fueled by rising scrap prices and new tariffs on imported steel by the Trump administration that are likely to take effect in March, market insiders told SteelOrbis this week.
During the February monthly buy-cycle, Midwest scrap traded an average of $45/gt ($46/mt) premiums to January scrap settled values. Insiders said low inventories and the effects of cold snowy weather across much of the eastern two-thirds of the US were supportive for February scrap prices.
New recently announced Section 232 tariffs on imported steel from the Trump administration are expected to further reduce imports of steel into the US, allowing domestic producers more levity to raise prices, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
In its usual Monday letter to its customers, Nucor reported its CSP up another $30/nt to $820/nt ($904/mt), or $41.00/cwt., FOB mill, up from $790/nt ($871/mt) or $39.50/cwt., one week earlier. Since the beginning of recent Nucor price increases for HRC on January 27, values have risen by nearly 9 percent. Prior to that, prices were stable at $750/cwt., for 11 weeks.
Given today’s price increase, the Nucor CSP price is at a slight premium to its nearest competitor Cleveland-Cliffs, which announced a $50/nt ($55.12/mt) price increase more than a month ago, moving its February Hot Rolled Market Price to $800/nt FOB mill.
In the flat steel spot markets, the SteelOrbis weekly average for HRC climbed again to an average $750/nt ($827/mt), or $37.50/cwt., up from $725/nt ($799/mt), or $36.25/cwt., one week ago.
Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) monitor also increased another $30/nt to $880/nt ($970/mt) FOB mill, or $44.00/cwt., up from $850/nt ($937/mt), or on average $42.50/cwt., one week prior.
Over the past several months, flagging finished steel demand resulted in Nucor reducing its CSP as low as $650/nt ($717/mt), or $32.50/cwt. during the week of July 15. Since that time, however, prices have fallen only once for two weeks on October 14 and October 21 to $720/nt ($794/mt) or $36.00/cwt., from $730/nt ($805/mt) or $36.50/cwt. Market insiders report that Nucor continues to keep its posted CSP pricing above the mills’ $32.50/cwt. variable cost of doing business because selling below that price could cause the mill to lose money, they said.