Published by: Robert England<>
28 Mar 2025 @ 20:54 UTC

Prices for domestic merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel rose by $40 per short ton in March as the market accepted mill price hikes announced earlier in the month, on the heels of a $60-per-ton increase in February, Fastmarkets has learned.
Import prices, however, increased at a more rapid pace of $95 per ton at the midpoint of a widening range of offers, pushed higher to include new tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, sources said.
Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4-inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $53.30 per hundredweight ($1,066 per short ton) on Friday March 28, up by 3.90% from $51.30 per cwt on February 28 and by 10.53% from $48.30 per cwt in the October 25-January 31 period.
And Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel merchant bar, loaded truck Port of Houston for immediate delivery was $950-1,080 per ton ($47.50-54.00 per cwt), up by 10.33% from $910-930 per ton on February 28 and by 18.02% from $850-870 per ton in the December 3-January 31 period.
Heard in the market The tonnage amounts for buyers booking orders with domestic mills has been rising as purchases of high-priced imports have declined, sources said.
“The market is increasing slowly right now, as many big projects are slated [and] higher prices are not slowing those down,” a distributor said. “There’s good demand for material.”
A second distributor agreed with that sentiment, stating, “Mill lead times are pushed out on MBQ and beam. Both are out 8-10 weeks, so double normal lead times. The tariffs have had a huge impact, and demand has been strong on both beams and MBQ, but better on beams.”
A trader said there is plenty of availability for imports, with some offshore mills offering prices low enough that they are competitive against domestic mills.
The first distributor said that import offers might be tempting, but they are also risky because of the delay in shipments that puts their arrival at midsummer from overseas mills.
While overall demand from the construction sector is rising, smaller fabricators are finding some of their projects may not be viable under higher prices for merchant bar, the first distributor said.
A second trader said import mill list prices “have some flexibility for volume commitments and strategic partnerships.”