AK Steel has announced a $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) price increase on all flat rolled steel spot sales (will not impact contract customers) effective immediately. This covers all spot sales of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized produced by the mill.

Lead times are said to be in late August/early September at most of the domestic steel producers. Here is a copy of their pricing announcement:

"West Chester, OH, August 02, 2010—AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said today that it will increase current spot market base prices by $40 per ton, effective immediately with all new orders for its carbon steel products. AK Steel said that the price increase is in response to increased demand for carbon steel products, as well as the need to recover higher costs for steelmaking inputs."

For more information and analysis of what this and other mill price increase announcements mean you can register to receive a free trial to our SMU newsletter. You can do so on our website: www.steelmarketupdate.com by clicking on the free trial logo.