Cliffs seeks $800/ton for HR with opening of July books

Cleveland-Cliffs is seeking at least $800 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled (HR) coil with the opening of its July order book.

The Cleveland-based steelmaker said the move was effective immediately in a letter to customers on Thursday, May 23.

Recall that Cliffs announced in April that it would publish a monthly HR price. The company’s announcement on Thursday represents a $50/st decrease from its published price of $850/st last month.

Despite that decrease, Cliffs is still $30/st higher than Nucor’s published spot HR price of $770/st.

Note that Nucor, unlike Cliffs, updates its published spot HR price weekly. You can keep track of it all with our mill price announcement calendar, which is here.

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.