In a letter to customers late Monday, Nucor announced that effective with shipments as of May 21, 2013, the raw materials surcharge (RMS) applicable for rebar and merchant bar will be $206/nt ($10.30 cwt. or $227/mt), a $22/nt ($1.10 or $24/mt) decrease from the April 11, 2013 surcharge. Further, Nucor will increase the base price of rebar and merchant bar by $22/nt, leaving transaction prices for rebar and merchant bar unchanged.
When Nucor announced an immediate $20/nt ($1.00 cwt. or $22/mt) base price decrease for rebar and merchant bar on May 2, the company indicated that regardless of how scrap prices settled for May, transaction prices for the rest of the month would not change--Nucor claimed the pre-emptive move was a response to "market conditions," but sources told SteelOrbis at the time that it was intended to correct widespread discounting in the market. Gerdau Long Steel North America and Steel Dynamics Inc. announced similar base price decreases at the time.