US domestic rebar and wire rod prices were stable to a bit higher this week, even as the market has yet to fully accept recent $30/nt domestic mill price increases for spot rebar supply, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in early May, Irving, Texas-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC), and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor both announced rebar price increases of $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 supply, bumping it by $30/nt ($1.50/cwt.) to put them on equal footing with price levels in Eastern US markets, the mill said.
“I think ultimately, the market will fully accept the recent mill price increases for rebar because of continued low imports, but it hasn’t fully happened yet,” remarked one US Midwest rebar insider. “I think these new potentially higher price levels need some time to to sink in a little bit before the market will fully accept them, and even more so, be willing to price products and services off them.”
Market insiders said reduced steel imports, estimated down by nearly 40 percent versus year ago levels, continue to prompt mills to produce more product, even as current mill capacity levels hover near 80 percent, the highest levels seen since August 2024.
In the domestic rebar market, US Midwest rebar on an FOB mill basis sold on average $1.00/cwt ($20/nt or $22/mt) higher 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) one week earlier. SteelOrbis data shows on a yearly basis, domestic rebar prices are up nearly more than 24 percent from equivalent weekly 2025 levels.
In the local wire rod markets, spot pricing is discussed steady for yet another week following earlier $1.00/cwt., ($20/nt or $22/mt) price increases two 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 continue to report that wire rod supplies remain scarcer than those reported for local rebar supply, with some expecting mill price increases to come soon. Tight wire rod supplies, insiders said, continues to add to ongoing market jitters about new potential mill disruptions in wire rod production due to both planned and unplanned outages later in May.
In the May US ferrous scrap market, monthly scrap settles were expected mostly sideways to April values for cuts and shredded scrap, insiders told SteelOrbis, while price direction for prime busheling scrap on a delivered basis was likely to settle $20/gt higher than April values through much of the US. In Detroit and Chicago, specifically, scrap insiders said pricing for May would likely settle sideways for primes, cut and shreds, while $10/gt lower pricing was likely for scrap turnings and borings, scrap insiders said.
