Steelmaker Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the price it charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- continued flat for a second week, following an earlier period of price increases, aimed at preventing further declines in the price of finished steel, market insiders told SteelOrbis this week.
This week’s CSP is steady for a second week at $710/nt ($783/mt) or $35.50/cwt. FOB mill, following an earlier price increase during the week of August 19 from $695/nt ($766/mt) or $34.75/cwt.
Insiders say flagging finished steel demand resulted in Nucor reducing its CSP as low as $650/nt ($717/mt) during the week of July 15. Since that time, prices have generally increased as the mill raised prices to prevent sales of finished HRC at or below the mills’ variable cost of doing business. Sales below that price level could cause the mill to lose money, insiders told SteelOrbis.
Since the first series of price increases were announced on July 29, Nucor’s CSP has increased more than 9.23 percent. Prior to the recent price increases, Nucor’s CSP price had lost more than 22 percent of its value on flagging demand for finished steel products since the CSP was released in early April at $830/nt ($915/mt) or $41.50/cwt.
Nucor explained to customers that recent price increases were the result of “higher raw material prices and an increase in order entries reflecting customers’ resilient underlying demand,” the steelmaker said.
During the week of August 26, spot HRC was assessed at $690-710/nt ($761-783/mt), up from $675-700/nt ($744-772/mt) on a delivered to customer basis during the week of August 19.
