Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP)—the price it charges for hot-rolled coils across all its mills—was reported higher today, June 30, following a flat price report a week earlier. According to market insiders who spoke with SteelOrbis, today’s CSP report represents the third week of price increases reported by Nucor since the start of doubled Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs on June 4. These tariffs now stand at 50 percent.
This week’s CSP rose $10/nt to $910/nt, ($1,003/mt), or $45.50/cwt., up from $900/nt ($992/mt) or $45.00/cwt., one week earlier. Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) base price also increased $10/nt to $970/nt ($1,069/mt) or $48.50/cwt., up from $960/nt ($1,058/mt) or $48.00/cwt., a week earlier.
Market insiders told SteelOrbis that, prior to the Trump administration’s recent doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs, mills were reluctant to raise prices for fear that higher domestic steel prices would make imported steel more competitive on a cost basis. They said that this scenario no longer exists while the current 50 percent tariff levels remain in place.
On the spot pricing side, the SteelOrbis spot HRC weekly average price was reported $5/nt higher at an average of $890/nt ($981/mt) or $44.50/cwt.
In late March and early April, the Nucor CSP Monitor reached its highest reported level since online reporting began in April 2024, at $935/nt. Following an extended period of flat CSP pricing, finished steel values rose in late January and increased by nearly 25 percent as the expected start of tariffs approached. Market insiders told SteelOrbis that high scrap prices in the first quarter of this year and reports of “panic buying ahead of the expected start of tariffs” in early April also buoyed finished steel values.
Following the recent sideways June scrap settlements in the US, most market insiders predict a sideways to higher 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.