Steel Mills

Nucor moves to stop HRC price slide with $10/ton hike

Written by Laura Miller

August 25, 2025

Nucor is attempting to halt the decline in hot-rolled (HR) coil prices, with the announcement of a $10-per-short-ton (st) increase in its weekly consumer spot price (CSP) on Monday.

The steelmaker said it is offering HR sheet with a base CSP of $875/st this week. A $10/st increase from last week, it marks the first upturn in Nucor’s HR list price since the beginning of July.

The price applies across all of Nucor’s sheet mills, except joint-venture subsidiary California Steel Industries (CSI). HR from CSI will also see a $10/st week-over-week rise to $935/st.

Lead times of three to five weeks are still being offered, according to Monday’s letter to customers from the Nucor Sheet Mill Group.

With concerns about demand and high production rates at US mills, HR prices have been on a slow, steady decline since reaching an average of $880/st in June.

SMU’s weekly price assessment showed HR coil prices ranging from $750/st to $860/st as of Tuesday, Aug. 19. The average of $805/st was down $15/st from the previous week and $50/st from a month earlier. It also marked the lowest point for HR prices since early February, according to SMU’s interactive pricing tool.

You can track flat-rolled steel price announcements from US mills using the calendar on our website.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. Since 2007, she has held various editorial and marketing positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills. In 2021, after a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel trade journalism, joining SMU in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

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