Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the price charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- was reported higher for a second week today following the June 4 start of doubled Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, which now stand at 50 percent, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
This week’s increase -the second in two weeks- follows four previous weeks of flat CSP pricing, which ceased once US President Donald Trump announced on May 30 that existing 25 percent tariffs would be doubled as of June 4.
This week’s CSP price increased by $10/nt ($11/mt), reaching $900/nt ($992/mt) or $45.00/cwt., up from the last week’s increase of $20/nt ($22/mt) to $890/nt ($981/mt), or $44.50/cwt. The price increases reported by Nucor over the past two weeks are the first price increases by the steel producer since the week of March 23, one week before Trump’s the new tariff policy announcements.
Market insiders told SteelOrbis that prior to the recent doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs by the Trump administration, mills were reluctant to raise prices for fear that higher domestic steel prices would make imports more competitive on a cost basis. They said that this scenario no longer exists while the current 50 percent tariff levels are in place.
Following last week’s $20/nt increase in the California Steel Industries (CSI) base price, the CSI index rose another $10/nt to $960/nt ($1,058/mt), or $48.00/cwt. this week.
On the spot pricing side, the SteelOrbis spot HRC weekly average price was reported $30/nt higher at an average of $870/nt ($959/mt) or $43.50/cwt. this past week.
In late March and early April, the Nucor CSP Monitor reached a record high of $935/nt, the highest level reported since online reporting began in April 2024. After a long of stable CSP pricing, prices increased in late January and continued to rise by almost 25 percent as the introduction of tariffs approached. High scrap prices in the first quarter and reports of “panic buying ahead of the start of tariffs” in early April boosted finished steel values, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
Following the recent sideways June scrap settlements in the US, most market insiders predict a sideways to up July scrap market on the growing consensus that scrap exports might improve in July, while spot finished steel prices are likely to remain strong, as few importing countries have renegotiated their specific tariffs with the US yet.
Since the industry release of the Nucor CSP in April 2024, flagging demand for finished steel has resulted in Nucor reducing its CSP to as low as $650/nt ($717/mt) or $32.50/cwt., Nucor’s so-called “break-even price,” during the week of July 15, 2024.