Following recent announcements of US mill price increases, domestic rebar and wire rod prices were stable this week, even as mills’ productive capacity continues to rise above the 80 percent level as steel imports remain slashed with ongoing 50 percent Section 232 steel import tariffs, market insiders said.
According to the most recent data from Washington, DC-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), US steel mills produced 1.898 million net tons of raw steel at 82.2 percent of capacity during the week ended May 16, the highest reported since August 2024. Year-to-date mill output is up from 78.3 percent of capacity a year earlier. Recent AISI steel import permit data as well as final March import data for the first four months of 2026 suggests total and finished steel imports remain off by 28.8-30.0 percent, respectively, versus year ago levels.
“While overall construction activity remains mixed, the market tone has become increasingly constructive as domestic mills benefit from (reduced) import competition, steady scrap costs, longer lead times and stronger infrastructure-related demand,” said one US Gulf Coast based steel insider. “Across most product families, buyers are operating with lean inventories, which has allowed mills to regain pricing traction despite uneven activity in residential construction. Data center construction, energy infrastructure and large institutional projects continue to provide meaningful support to demand, particularly for rebar, structural products and MBQ applications.”
In the domestic rebar market, Midwest rebar on an FOB mill basis was steady at $47.00-48.00/cwt. ($940-960/nt or $1,036-1,058/mt), up from $46.00-47.00/cwt., ($920-940/nt or $1,014-1,036/mt) two weeks earlier. SteelOrbis data shows on a yearly basis, domestic rebar prices remain up about 24 percent from equivalent weekly levels seen a year earlier.
In the local wire rod markets, spot pricing on the US Gulf Coast remained steady still another week following earlier $1.00/cwt., ($20/nt or $22/mt) price increases three weeks earlier, bringing pricing on an FOB basis to $50.00-51.00/cwt., ($1,000-1,020/nt or $1,102-1,124/mt). Traders said ongoing market tightness for wire rod products could prompt US mills to seek further price increases soon, though some said an expected increase in import competition as domestic prices rise, could limit the amount of potential increases.
In the May US ferrous scrap market, monthly scrap pricing finished mostly sideways for US obsolete grades, with Chicago and Detroit-based prime scrap trade posting a surprise finish at steady to April levels, insiders said. Elsewhere in the US, especially in the US South, prime grades settled $20/gt higher versus April levels. June scrap discussions, although early, reveal many think June scrap could finish little changed from May levels, though early-on summer heat could reduce inflows into storage yards.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in early May, Irving, Texas-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC), and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor both announced rebar pricing would rise by $30/nt ($1.50/cwt). The more recent price increase follows on an earlier Nucor increase in the price of its US West Coast rebar prices, bumping them by $30/nt ($1.50/cwt.) to put them on equal footing with pricing being quoted in Eastern US markets, the mill said.
