Foreign vs. Domestic Hot Rolled Prices in July

The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB Domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs can fluctuate, ultimately influencing the true market spread. We do not include the 25 percent tariff or any other unusual costs to the calculations we provide.

We are now comparing the SMU U.S. hot rolled index to CRU price indices for Germany, Italy and China. Be aware that the Chinese price is not available to the U.S. market; it is nothing more than an exercise of “what if.”