Published by: Mark Burgess<>
2 Jul 2025 @ 20:57 UTC

Hot-rolled coil prices in the US South increased for a fourth consecutive week with the market continuing to react to higher mill offer prices because of the recent escalation in Section 232 tariffs. Fastmarkets’ weekly steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US South was calculated at $44.68 per hundredweight ($893.60 per short ton) on Wednesday July 2, up by 0.59% from $44.42 per cwt a week earlier on June 25.
Inputs were collected in the buyer and seller sub-indices in a range from $40.50-46.00 per cwt on Wednesday, representing deals, offers and general market assessments.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $45.42 per hundredweight ($908.40 per short ton) on Wednesday, up by 0.87% from $45.03 per cwt a week earlier.
Nucor increased its weekly consumer spot price in an announcement on Monday, June 30 to a base price of $45.50 per cwt ($910 per ton) for the steelmaker’s hot-roll products for the remainder of this week, up by 1.11% from $45 per cwt on June 23.
Despite the published price increase, many within the market continue to downplay the potential staying power of a sustained upturn in prices.
Lethargic market fundamentals paired with a typical seasonal slowdown in July and August are apparently dueling with positive sentiment resulting from Section 232 tariff increases and the resulting mill HRC price hikes.
Demand is pretty weak, a distributor source said. Since the mills tried to push the pricing back to $900 [per ton], everything has died off.
South HRC prices have now increased for four consecutive weeks since slipping to $43.31 in early June. The recent upturn followed eight consecutive weeks of declines from April 16 to June 4.
We are seeing customer forecasts decline, the distributor source said. Folks are generating cash and feeling like things will soften. Several large [original equipment manufacturers] have shutdowns scheduled for this week and next week. I think this is stagnant at best, and we have a quiet two to three weeks ahead of us.
Lead times continue to be reported at three to four weeks.