Cleveland Cliffs announced it would be increasing carbon steel products base prices by a minimum of $75/st for all new orders in North America, according to a letter seen by S&P Global Commodity Insights Aug. 24.
In the announcement, the company said it would be increasing base prices for all new orders effective immediately by a minimum of $75/st. The price move trails behind another recent increase announced by Nucor on Aug. 8.
“The sheet mill price hikes from Nucor a couple of weeks ago and now Cleveland Cliffs are really just a means to signal to service centers that prices should not fall further, but I don’t think they are expecting higher HRC prices just yet,” a US ferrous scrap dealer said in response.
The market continued to face downward pressure following Nucor’s announcement earlier this month as sources reported a softening in demand. The market saw minimal activity during this period as buyers remained anxious about a price floor. In the last week, however, a slight uptick was seen with a few arger-ton transactions reported as sources hoped to be closing in on the bottom.
US HRC prices have fallen $70/st on the month, down $40/st since Nucor’s announcement on Aug. 8.
The daily Platts US HRC index was last assessed Aug. 24 at $770/st, S&P Global Commodity Insights
data showed.
Source: Steel Business Briefing Ltd
