US long product minimill Gerdau Ameristeel has announced to customers that it will adjust pricing for most products – including rebar, merchant bar, low carbon wire rod and wide flange beams – upwards by $40/nt ($44 /mt or $2.00 cwt.) come August 1.
Ahead of US longs market leader Nucor, Gerdau Ameristeel has announced that published prices for all of the above products will rise by $40/nt, or roughly two-thirds of the amount that US shredded scrap prices rose in July, effective with shipments as of August 1, 2009.
The company notified its customers of the coming hikes in letters sent out late last week. The company also mentioned in its price announcements that due to the challenging business conditions, these increases do not reflect the full impact of rising raw material costs. US benchmark shredded scrap prices rose by roughly $60/nt ($66/mt or $3.00 cwt) in early July.
Gerdau Ameristeel also announced to wire rod customers that it will raise the price of certain products with higher input costs, including medium and high carbon grades, by $60/nt as of August 1.
All eyes are now on the August longs pricing announcement from Nucor Corp. Nucor's announcement is expected to be issued within the next week and will be the decisive US longs price move for August. Nucor is also expected to move its longs prices up; however the amount of the increase could be less than Ameristeel’s. In such a case, spot market prices for these products would likely fall back to Nucor’s announcement level.