Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the price charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- was stable this week following a marginal decline this past week on April 14, amid lower April scrap price settles and now a solidly down outlook for May scrap, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
Nucor’s CSP price is reported steady at $930/nt ($1,025/mt), or $46.50, FOB mill, following a $5/nt decline a week earlier from $935/nt ($1,031/mt), or $46.75/cwt. Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) monitor remains stable for a fourth week at $990/nt ($1,091/mt), or $49.50/cwt.
Market insiders told SteelOrbis that finished steel pricing was continuing to decline following a late-March peak in prices which saw the weekly Nucor CSP monitor at its highest reported level ($950/nt) since reporting began in April of 2024. A combination of recent lower prices for April scrap and now an expectation for reduced May scrap, with a growing hesitation by domestic mills to raise prices, may be behind this week’s flat CSP and continued lower finished steel pricing.
Insiders tell SteelOrbis that domestic mills remain reluctant to raise posted prices for fear that rising prices would make imported finished steel products more competitive with domestic supply, even given current 25 percent import tariffs and other combined import duties.
Today’s flat pricing follows last week’s first reported dip in the CSP since prices started to rise in late January. Since January 27, values have risen by 24 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 for the first quarter and a certain amount of “panic buying ahead of the start of tariffs” had buoyed finished steel values, though April scrap finished $20-40/gt less while May scrap is now seen $20-40/gt ($20-41/mt) lower than April settlements. Panic buying is apparently over, they said.
In the domestic flat steel spot markets, the SteelOrbis weekly average for HRC fell last week by $35/nt ($39/mt) to $875-925/nt ($965-1,020/mt), or $45.00/cwt.
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 43 percent.