Steel Mills

CSI Opens June Flat-Rolled Books, Increases Prices

Written by Michael Cowden

March 17, 2021

California Steel Industries (CSI) has opened its June flat rolled orderbook, and the West Coast slab converter has also increased prices by as much as $90 per ton ($4.50/cwt), according to market participants.

“The purpose of this letter is to inform you that CSI’s June flat rolled orderbook is now open,” the company said in a letter to customers on Wednesday, March 17.

CSIThe letter did not specify an increase. But sources said CSI had offered them hot-rolled coil at $1,330 per ton, up from $1,240 per ton previously.

The increase could put CSI on par with mills east of the Rocky Mountains, some of which are offering hot band for as much as $1,340 per ton. And several sources think that prices east of the Rockies could go higher still when other domestic producers re-open their orderbooks.

U.S. hot-rolled coil prices, meanwhile, are already at all-time highs.

Steel Market Update’s average hot-rolled coil price stands at $1,300 per ton, up nearly 32% from $985 per ton at the beginning of the year and nearly triple an August low of $440 per ton.

SMU’s prior high was $1,070 per ton in July 2008. That’s $1279.41 per ton when adjusted for inflation, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.

CSI, approximately 50 miles east of Los Angeles in Fontana, Calif., has the capability to make hot-rolled, pickled-and-oiled, cold-rolled and galvanized products as well as welded pipe.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He has since 2014 specialized in flat-rolled steel but has previously reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube as well as aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago - where he was involved in launching AMM's daily hot-rolled coil index, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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