Steel Products Prices North America

NLMK USA Announces 5th Flat Rolled Price Increase

April 5, 2016

NLMK USA is the first domestic steel mill to announce a $40 per ton price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels sold into the spot markets. This is now the fifth steel price increase announcement made since early December.

In a letter to their customers, NLMK USA Executive Vice President, James Banker, Jr. said the increase was due to, “Your demand for NLMK USA’s products continues at a strong rate. We are also experiencing dramatic increases in raw material costs for both slabs and scrap.” He went on to say the increase is effective immediately for all new spot orders and offers that are not yet confirmed are no longer valid.

NLMK began announcing higher spot base prices back on December 9th when they asked their customers to pay an additional $40 per ton. Since then we have seen increase announcements made in January when on the 12th NLMK went up $30 per ton. On March 2nd NLMK took prices up another $30 per ton followed by another $30 per ton on the 17th.

The five increases total $170 per ton since the beginning of December.

Based on our market analysis we believe this will take hot rolled base price up to $480-$500 per ton and coated base prices around $34.00/cwt-$35.00/cwt.

SMU expects the other domestic mills will follow although there may be a difference in what each mill asks of their customers.