Nucor’s (CSP) -the price charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- was steady this week, following last week’s highest price level reported since its inception in April 2024. A combination of recent lower price expectations for April scrap, with a growing hesitation by domestic mills to continue to raise prices may have been behind this week’s stable Nucor CSP price, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
Domestic mills, they said, are reluctant to continue to raise their prices because current price levels are likely to make imported finished steel products more competitive, even given the current 25 percent import tariffs and other combined import duties.
In its usual Monday letter to its customers, Nucor reported its Consumer Spot Price (CSP) was flat from one week earlier at $935/nt ($1,031/mt), or $46.50/cwt., FOB mill, following a final $5/nt ($6/mt) rise in a series of weekly price increases that began on January 27. Since that date, values have risen by 24.7 percent. Prior to that, prices were stable for nearly three months at $750/nt ($827/mt) or $37.50/cwt. Insiders said recent high scrap prices have buoyed finished steel prices.
Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) monitor was also flat at $995/nt ($1,097/mt), or $49.75/cwt., following its previous $5/nt ($6/mt) price increase from $990/nt ($1,091/mt), or $49.50/cwt., on an FOB mill basis.
Insiders said recent declines reported in the outlook for April scrap pricing has been less supportive of HRC and other finished steel products. April shredded scrap in the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois, is discussed sideways to $20-30/gt ($20-30/mt) less versus March settled values at the start of this week’s April domestic monthly scrap supply negotiations. In the domestic flat steel spot markets, the SteelOrbis weekly average for HRC declined $50/nt ($55/mt) to $900/nt ($992/mt).
Since the industry release of the Nucor CSP in April 2024, flagging finished steel demand has 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, Nucor’s CSP has risen more than 43.8 percent.
Low inventories and the effects of cold snowy weather across much of the eastern two-thirds of the US were said to have boosted March scrap prices. March shredded scrap settled in the US Ohio Valley at $455-460/gt ($462-467/mt), while prime busheling scrap for March, on a delivered to mill basis was up $30/gt ($30/mt) to $485-510/nt ($493-518/mt). On the US East Coast March HMS 1 scrap settled on average $20/gt ($20/mt) higher at $375-390/gt ($381-396/mt).
This week on Wednesday, reciprocal tariffs are expected to be enacted by the US Trump administration starting with the top 15 nations with the highest trade imbalances with the US. Those countries according to the US Trade Representative (USTR) are China, the EU, Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Switzerland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and South Africa. Some of these nations, including Vietnam, were not subject to Section 232 trade tariffs that Trump levied during his first administration, because they were removed during the later Biden administration.