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.