Steel Products Prices North America

Flat Roll Mills Seek New Price in New Year

January 4, 2018

Nucor led the charge of the East Coast flat rolled steel mills in an effort to keep prices moving higher. On Wednesday, Nucor, followed by U.S. Steel, put out announcements advising customers of their intention to raise spot flat rolled prices by $40 per ton. Soon after, NLMK USA and AK Steel followed Nucor’s lead and took their hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel prices up by the same $40 per ton. All four companies said the increase is effective immediately on new orders and will not affect pricing extras.

NLMK informed customers that the increase is “due to increasing strength in market demand, extended lead times, and rising raw material costs.”

First to raise prices this week were West Coast mills California Steel Industries and USS-POSCO, which both announced flat roll increases of $30 per ton on Tuesday.

Domestic flat rolled steel producers have been striving to collect higher prices for the past quarter. Most of the mills last announced $30 per ton price increases in mid-December just prior to the Christmas and New Year Holidays.

The series of price hikes comes as no surprise to most in the marketplace, which expected the mills to position themselves for what is expected to be a strong first quarter for the U.S. economy. Ferrous scrap prices appear to be headed up by $20 to $30 per gross ton, which will put pressure on the mills to keep raising prices.

Steel buyers contacted by Steel Market Update today reported hot rolled spot prices being offered by the domestic mills ranging from a low of $650 per ton to as high as $700 per ton. It will take some time before we will see exactly where steel prices will settle.