Market Segment

Cliffs Joins Nucor, Lifts Sheet $50/ton and Aims for $900/ton HRC

Written by Michael Cowden

February 13, 2023

Cleveland-Cliffs has joined Nucor in increasing spot prices for steel sheet by at least another $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt).

The Cleveland-based steelmaker, like Nucor, is also targeting a base price of $900 per ton for hot-rolled cold.

Cliffs logo2.2

Cliffs said the increase was effective immediately and applied equally to all new orders of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated products in a press release dated Monday, Feb. 13. It did not, however, provide target base prices for cold-rolled and coated material.

The move comes less than two weeks after Cliffs announced a $50-per-ton price hike and a target HRC price of $850 per ton.

Initial market reaction to the rapid-fire price increases was mixed.

The higher prices sought by Nucor and Cliffs are justified by production problems at other mills. That has left certain producers with little spot availability for March, some sources said.

But others questioned whether demand was strong enough to support the highest HRC prices since mid-July, according to our interactive pricing tool. 

By Michael Cowden, michael@steelmarketupdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, 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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