• Skip to main content

    Company Announcements

    June 26, 2026

    Reminder: SMU’s Final Thoughts has moved to a dedicated Friday edition

    Written by Brett Linton

    One last reminder that we recently updated how we deliver content to our subscribers.

    Our first standalone Final Thoughts was published on Friday. It now serves as a dedicated space for thought leadership and market analysis from our experts. A newsletter email was sent to subscribers around 11:30 am eastern. Read it here.

    Our regular newsletters on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday evenings continue to bring you the key news, data, and developments throughout the week. Final Thoughts is now a more focused end-of-week read, offering our take on the key market themes, the bigger picture behind them, and what they could mean for our subscribers. Content that previously appeared in the Final Thoughts spot but was more survey or event-focused will continue to appear in our regular newsletters as standalone items.

    This newsletter will be sent from our new email system. Please ensure smu@crugroup.com is on your safe senders list.

    We hope you enjoy this new format, and please do reach out if you have any questions or issues!

    Brett Linton

    Brett Linton is a digital operations analyst for Steel Market Update, where he began his career. Linton has been in the steel industry since 2010. He has held roles as a category manager and strategic insights director at Reibus before returning to SMU in 2024. He is a graduate of The University of North Georgia with a degree in Finance and Accounting. Brett can be reached at brett@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-314-0179.

    Read more from Brett Linton

    Latest in Company Announcements

    Hertha Metals breaks ground on Texas iron plant, eyes 500,000-ton steel mill

    Hertha Metals has broken ground on its first commercial plant, a $100 million project that the startup says will demonstrate its process at scale and lay the groundwork for a 500,000-metric-ton-per-year steel mill. The company celebrated the groundbreaking of the Hertha Chalyx project on Friday, Oct. 9, in Conroe, Texas. The plant is designed to produce ~10,000 metric tons of steel-grade and magnet-grade high-purity iron each year. It will run on domestic iron ore, primarily from Minnesota’s Iron Range, and natural gas from Texas.

    Nucor increases spot HR to $1,240/ton

    Nucor said on Monday, Oct. 12, that its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil will be $1,240 per short ton (st) this week, a $10/st increase from a week earlier. The CSP for HR coil from California Steel Industries (CSI) on the West Coast will be $1,305/st, up $15/st from the prior week. Nucor is still offering lead times of three to five weeks, according to the letter to customers. You can track mill price announcements on our website. Steel Market Update (SMU) published a weekly price assessment on Tuesday, Oct. 6, showing HR coil prices averaging $1,270/st, up $10/st from the previous week. We will update our prices on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 13.