Steel Prices
Cliffs seeks $700/ton for HR, up $30/ton from last week
Written by Michael Cowden
July 31, 2024
Cleveland-Cliffs said on Wednesday that it would seek at least $700 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled (HR) coil.
The Cleveland-based steelmaker said it made the move “due to ongoing market developments.” The company also said the increase was effective immediately for HR orders for September.
The price hike represents an increase of $30/st from Cliffs published price of $670/st on Friday. It also marks a $25/ton increase from Nucor’s published price of $675/ton on Monday.
Note that Nucor’s price this week was up $25/ton from a week ago, according to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar.
“Cleveland-Cliffs Steel will continue monitoring several key market drivers and reserves the right to modify pricing prior to completing the spot September availability,” the company said in a letter to customers.
Recall that Nucor updates HR prices weekly. Cliffs typically updates them once a month. But as SMU wrote on Sunday in Final Thoughts, the language in the quote above left open the possibility of an increase before Cliffs’ September HR book closed.
SMU’s spot HR price stands at $640/st on average, up $5/st from last week but down $30/st from a month ago. HR prices have not been at or above $700/st since mid-June, according to our pricing records.
We switched our momentum indicator from “lower” to “neutral” yesterday following Nucor’s price increase on Monday. We also noted an increasing consensus that steel prices might have found a floor. In addition, some market sources predicted additional increases will follow Nucor’s leading move.
Michael Cowden
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