US Midwest HRC index approaches $950/t

Published by: Chris Kavanagh<>
31 Mar 2025 @ 20:55 UTC

Hot-rolled coil prices in the US Midwest approached $950 per short ton on Monday March 31 despite tepid spot demand ahead of the upcoming April 2 US tariff announcements.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $47.33 per hundredweight ($946.60 per short ton) on Monday, up by 1.87% from $46.46 per cwt on Friday and virtually flat from $47.31 per cwt a week earlier on March 24.
Inputs were collected in the buyer and seller sub-indices in a range of $46-49 per cwt, representing deals, offers and general assessments of market activity.
After nine consecutive weekly increases, Nucor held its weekly consumer spot price announcement on Monday at a $46.75 per cwt base price for the steelmaker’s hot-rolled products for the remainder of this week.
Sources continued to depict sluggish spot demand as the market remained clouded by tariff-related uncertainty, with sources awaiting the April 2 White House announcement regarding US reciprocal tariff rates.
Lead times are at three to six weeks, according to sources.
Quote of the day We are seeing buyers get a little cautious about how many orders they are ready to place, yet the price of the spot transactions has not changed, a supplier source said.