Published by:Rachel McGuire<>
27 May 2025 @ 21:02 UTC
Hot-rolled coil prices in the US Midwest plummeted to a three-month low on Tuesday May 27 due to lower demand, with buyers holding out on spot market purchases. Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $43.42 per hundredweight ($868.40 per short ton) on Tuesday, down by 3.06% from $44.79 per cwt on Friday May 23 and by 2.54% from $44.55 per cwt a week earlier on May 20.
The US Midwest HRC index was not published on Monday May 26 in observance the of Memorial Day holiday.
Inputs were collected in the range of $38-44 per cwt, representing deals heard, offers and general assessments of the spot market.
An input on the low end was discarded by the outlier filter.
Heard in the market Nucor lowered its weekly consumer spot announcement on Tuesday to a base price of $43.50 per cwt for the steelmaker’s hot-roll products for the remainder of this week, down by 1.14% from $44.00 per cwt a week earlier.
Prices continued to drop as market uncertainty prevented participants from returning to normal activity, sources said.
Demand for hot-rolled coil has slowed compared with previous months, but shipments are reportedly stable from stronger March and April demand.
Buyers continued to discuss how long they can hold out on spot market purchases amid ample shipments and stable inventory levels, a buyer told Fastmarkets.
Prices are expected to slide further as the summer progresses, a distributor said.
Lead times are three to five weeks, sources reported.
Quote of the day Business has dropped way off with incoming orders, but we are still enjoying a boom of shipping orders from March and April, a distributor said. I think it’s going to be a quote summer with prices continuing to slide.