US Midwest HRC index slips below $940/ton

US Midwest HRC index slips below $940/ton
Published by:Chris Kavanagh<>
14 Apr 2025 @ 21:27 UTC

Hot-rolled coil prices in the US Midwest slipped below $940 per ton on Monday April 14 as buyers continue to approach the market with caution amid uncertainty. Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $46.89 per hundredweight ($937.80 per short ton) on Monday, down by 0.36% from $47.06 per cwt on Friday April 11 and down by 1.90% from $47.80 per cwt on April 7.
Inputs were collected in the buyer and seller sub-indices in a range of $46.00-47.50 per cwt, representing deals, offers and general market assessments.
Nucor lowered its weekly consumer spot price announcement on Monday to a base price of $46.50 per cwt ($930.00 per short ton) for the steelmaker’s hot-roll products for the remainder of this week, down by 0.53% from $46.75 per cwt ($935.00 per ton) a week earlier.
Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs informed customers on Friday that it would begin accepting May orders at a spot price of $48.75 per cwt ($975.00 per short ton).
Although prices have held relatively steady recently, buyers remain cautious due to uncertain economic conditions within the US, sources said.
Market participants suggested that overall demand remains healthy enough to maintain current price levels, but buyers will continue to keep exposure to too much inventory at a minimum given the economic uncertainty.
Lead times were reported at four to seven weeks.
Quote of the day The market is sort of sitting in neutral right now, with buyers not seeing horrible demand, but in no way [do they] feel the need to panic buy for more material. I think everyone has read a dozen articles and quotes per day from ‘experts’ — who really have no clue at all how the economy is going to react to all of these tariffs — that the economy is likely to either be going or might already be in recession, when in fact they truly do not know, a steel mill source said.