Foreign vs. Domestic Hot Rolled Steel Price Comparison

This week’s comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S-produced steel continues to hold a price advantage over foreign imports, but that price advantage is lessening due to the rapid rise in domestic prices, according to SMU and CRU indices. The price differentials between domestic HRC compared to foreign imports had widened over the last few months to reach record highs in mid-August, but have since declined 21-26 percent in just one month.

The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). This is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs can fluctuate, ultimately influencing the true market spread. We are comparing the SMU U.S. hot rolled weekly index to CRU hot rolled weekly indices for Germany, Italy and the Far East (East and Southeast Asian ports).