Steel Prices

U.S. Steel increases sheet prices by $50/ton, seeks $800/ton HR

January 31, 2025

U.S. Steel has increased sheet prices by $50 per short ton (st), according to market participants.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker has also set a new target price of $800/st for hot-rolled coil, they said.

The price hike was effective immediately and applied equally to hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated flat-rolled steel. There was no letter announcing the move as best as SMU can determine.

U.S. Steel’s $50/st price hike appears to be the first since it announced a $30/st increase in October. Its price increase also comes after Nucor announced a modest $10/st price hike on Monday. That move represented Nucor’s first price increase since mid-November, according to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar.

Some context on why the increase amounts differ so much: Nucor, unlike most mills, updates prices once a week. So it tends to increase prices more gradually than mills that announce prices on a monthly basis (Cleveland-Cliffs, for example) or on an irregular basis (most other mills).

SMU has in addition heard that mills that had been offering coated pricing in the low $800s/st have raised price substantially in more recent offers.

The price hikes come on the heels of higher scrap prices in January, expectations that scrap will move higher in February, and anticipation that President Trump’s tariffs could drive both up prices for both steel and raw materials such as scrap and pig iron.

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.