U.S. Steel/Posco (UPI) became the first west coast mill to publically increase their cold rolled and galavnized prices. On Friday, Craig Peterson, Vice President Commercial for the mill sent out a letter to their customers advising them of their new pricing.

“Please note that effective with new orders validated for shipment on or after September 13, 2010 base prices for cold rolled sheet and galvanized sheet products will increase by a minimum of $40 per ton.”

West coast buyers are anticipating a similar move by California Steel Industries (CSI) and Steelscape – the other two flat rolled steel mills located on the west coast.

Earlier last week price announcements were made by a number of the east coast mills including Severstal NA, AK Steel, Nucor, Duferco Farrell/NLMK-Indiana/Sharon Coatings, wheeling Nisshin and U.S. Steel. All of the price increase announcements were for prices to rise a minimum of $30-$40 per short ton ($1.50/cwt-$2.00/cwt).

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