Steel Prices

BREAKING NEWS: NLMK USA up $50/ton on HR and CR, up $100/ton on coated

October 24, 2025

NLMK USA plans to increase prices for hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil by at least $50 per short ton (st).

The move is effective immediately for all spot orders, the steelmaker said in a letter to customers on Friday afternoon.

The price hike comes “due to improving demand, increased order placement, and extending lead times,” per the letter.

NLMK USA also said it would seek to lift prices for coated products by a minimum of $100/st.
The $100/st coated price hike is necessary to “restore the true value in value-added products,” the company said.

NLMK USA’s price hike is the first since Nucor increased its weekly CSP $10/st on Aug. 25.

SMU’s price for hot-rolled coil stands at $805/st on average. That’s up $20/st from $785/st a month ago.

Some market participants have speculated that sheet prices could move upward in a bigger way on a combination of lower import volumes, lower customer inventories, and fall maintenance outages. But to date, the market appears to have bottomed out but not mounted a significant recovery due to concerns about demand.

It remains to be seen whether NLMK USA’s increase will stick and whether other US mills will follow.

The bigger increase on galvanized comes as the spread between HR and galv base prices has fallen to a multiyear low. SMU’s Brett Linton explored the subject in detail in an article here.

NLMK USA operates an electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Portage, Ind., a hot-strip mill and a cold-reduction mill in Farrell, Pa., and a galvanizing facility in Sharon, Pa. The Portage mill has a capacity of 800,000 st per year.

The company has a smaller presence in the US than major sheet mills such as Nucor, Cleveland-Cliffs, Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), and U.S. Steel. But it is a significant player in the spot market.

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.