Nucor Corp.'s bar and beam divisions have both announced that they will raise transaction prices for
rebar,
merchant bar, and structural products, including wide flange
beams (WFB), by $40/nt ($44/mt or $2.00 cwt.) in August, mirroring Gerdau Ameristeel's August
longs price announcements days earlier.
Nucor Bar Mill Group and
Nucor-Yamato sent letters to customers Wednesday morning informing them that effective with shipments August 1, 2009, the firm's Raw Materials Surcharge (RMS) applicable to
rebar,
merchant bar, and structurals, including WFB, will be $103 /nt ($114 /mt or $5.15 cwt.), which represents an increase of $60 /nt ($66 /mt or $3.00 cwt.) compared to its July 1, 2009 surcharge.
Nucor will absorb some of the RMS increase by decreasing base prices for these products by $20 /nt ($22 /mt or $1.00 cwt.), resulting in a net $40 /nt increase for
rebar,
merchant bar, and structurals/WFB prices in August.
Following
Nucor competitor Gerdau Ameristeel's August price increase announcements issued earlier this week, in which the company said it would boost prices for most
longs products by $40 /nt, there had been some speculation that
Nucor would raise August
longs prices by a lesser amount, as it had in the past. However,
Nucor has apparently opted to follow Ameristeel's lead this time, absorbing one-third of the July increase in shredded
scrap prices for a net $40 /nt increase in
longs transaction prices to customers.