US alt-irons prices steady after latest trade
Published by:Christian Willbern<>
1 Jul 2025 @ 16:45 UTC

A new deal for basic pig iron and a slight tug-of-war over potential price movements acted to stabilize the prices US alternative iron materials in the week to Monday, June 30, trade sources told Fastmarkets. A Ukraine-US deal was reported concluded around $450 per tonne CIF New Orleans late last week, they said.
The deal was roughly in line with two previous sales of Brazilian low-phosphorus pig iron concluded in the week to June 23.
We are in a push-pull kind of situation, a US source said, because [pig iron] producers see steel tariffs going up and scrap going strong, so they want strong prices, but consumers are pulling back because pig iron is going to add more cost to their melt mixes.
This came while some market participants expected sideways pricing moves in most regions for the July domestic ferrous scrap trade, due to stable demand.
But Chicago, a bellwether US scrap market, could have a stronger trade this month amid healthier mill buys and stronger US prices for steel hot-rolled coil, trade sources told Fastmarkets.
One mill in the southeast scheduled sideways offers on heavy melting scrap, plate and structural scrap, and turning and borings on the morning of July 1, Fastmarkets learned on the same day. But it was heard that dealers may be working toward stronger prices over the period.
Sources within the finished steel sector largely attributed the increase to higher mill offers following the doubling of the US Section 232 tariffs enacted earlier in the month.
US steelmaker Nucor also raised its weekly consumer price to $45.50 per hundredweight ($910 per short ton) on June 30, up from $45 per cwt the week before.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest, reached $45.17 per hundredweight ($903.40 per short ton) on June 30, up from $44.50 per cwt on June 27 and $44.50 per cwt on June 23.
Consequently, Fastmarkets assessed the prices of both pig iron basic grade, Brazil, fob New Orleans, and pig iron basic grade, Ukraine/Russia, fob New Orleans, at $450-505 per tonne on June 30, unchanged from the week before.