Although Nucor was expected to join Gerdau in its $1.00 cwt. ($20/nt or $22/mt) rebar price increase for June shipments, nothing but crickets has been heard in the market, leading many sources to infer that Nucor is bowing out of the uptrend push. Scrap prices have not firmed as many hoped and the prospects for next month are dim; as such, it is not entirely certain whether Gerdau will be able to push their full increase through--some sources think they might even quietly rescind it. So for this week, at least, US domestic spot prices remain in the range of $34.25-$35.25 cwt. ($685-$705/nt or $755-$777/mt) ex-mill.
Not helping matters in the US domestic market are downtrending Turkish offers. Traders have been able to negotiate prices down by about $5/mt on the CFR level, but because they did not raise sales prices in the US the last time CFR offers increased, there has been no change in futures offers for now. Anyone looking to book new orders from Turkey will still be paying something in the range of $29.50-$30.50 cwt. ($590-$610/nt or $650-$672/mt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, and traders tell SteelOrbis that CFR offers would have to drop much more (and thus widen their margins) for it to make sense to lower sales prices in the US.