Steelmaker Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP) -the price it charges for hot-rolled coils across all of its mills- rose this week, following two weeks of price stability, the steel maker said Sept. 23 in a letter to its customers.
This week’s CSP is quoted at $730/nt, (805/mt), or $36.50/cwt, compared to $720/nt ($794/mt) or $36.00/cwt., a level it held for two weeks.
Insiders say flagging finished steel demand resulted in Nucor reducing its CSP as low as $650/nt ($717/mt), or $32.50/cwt. during the week of July 15. Since that time, prices have generally increased as the mill raised prices to prevent sales of finished HRC at or below the mills’ variable cost of doing business, insiders told SteelOrbis. Sales below that price level could cause the mill to loose money, they said.
Since the first series of price increases were announced on July 29, Nucor’s CSP has increased 12.3 percent. Prior to the recent price increases, Nucor’s CSP price had lost more than 22 percent of its value on flagging demand for finished steel products since the CSP was first released in early April at $830/nt ($915/mt) or $41.50/cwt.
Nucor typically doesn’t explain its reasoning behind price increases, though did so on July 29, stating that recent higher prices were the result of “higher raw material prices and an increase in order entries reflecting customers’ resilient underlying demand,” the steelmaker said then in a letter to its customers.
Nucor’s California Steel Industries (CSI) monitor is offered $10/nt ($11/mt) higher at $790/nt ($871/mt) or $39.50/cwt., compared with $780/nt ($860/mt), or $39.00/cwt, a level it also held for the past two weeks.