NLMK Announces Second $50/ton HRC Increase

Click here to sign up today for a free three-month trial to receive all the articles in the Industry News service along with our monthly Forecast Reports.

Pointing to a “continuing increase in demand, strong order placement, and extended lead times” NLMK USA announced that it would increase base prices for Hot Rolled and Cold Rolled Coil products by $50/ton. Furthermore, all quotes for Coated Products were announced to have a $150 per ton minimum price premium to HRC prices.

NLMK had made a similar $50/ton price increase announcement in late October. WSD suspects that NLMK’s current asking price for HRC is in the $890-$900 per ton range, which is in line with the Nucor’s $895/ton CSP price.

WSD is currently hearing a wide range of spot prices, with indexes beginning to firm in the $870-$880 per ton range.

WSD Take:

As WSD wrote earlier this week, psychology is a potent force in the market. For most of 2025, buyers have elected to sustain subsistence level inventories. In the last two months, supply has tightened significantly with up to 800k tons of sheet capacity undergoing maintenance in the Q4 and import volumes falling sharply due to 50% tariffs on all global steel shipments.

Could this be the perfect storm that WSD described in our “wild card scenario,” or is demand weak enough to prevent a buying panic amongst inventory short buyers. In the absence of competitive import offers, it is certainly likely that prices will at least firm in the $875-$900 per ton range; however, in the absence of real demand growth (not inclusive of inventory bolstering), how far can psychology drive market prices?

If history means anything, the possibility of a surge in pricing above $950 per ton is not out of the picture. In WSD’s opinion, the likelihood of this outcome is a function of the market’s animalistic instincts.

Click here to sign up today for a free three-month trial to receive all the articles in the Industry News service along with our monthly Forecast Reports.