Yes Virginia, There Is a USA HRC Spot Price—And a Market
It was just after last Christmas when USA flat-rolled market participants started talking about leaner spot market availability ahead for US-made hot-rolled coil. By late January the domestic spot price was steadily increasing as supply tightened. Lead times are now into late September, according to buy- and sell-side sources and business activity is now happening at strong price levels in H2 2026.
How strong? “North of $1,160 per ton this week,” a steel distributor in the southern US told WSD. A mill sales rep reported that September is pretty much closed out, with latest orders for average-size tonnage between $1,160-$1,170 per ton.
Nucor, however, maintained its Consumer Spot Price (CSP) for HRC this week well below such marks—at $1,135 per ton. That puzzled another source with a Midwest service center who questioned the reality of the spot market considering what he described as having “no availability.”
“If there is no spot market, is there even a price?” he mused.
But data from Argus Global Steel, which publishes its own proprietary prices, shows plenty of spot HRC tonnage in the US has been sold on a weekly basis since the beginning of the year. In fact, a record-to-date volume of more than 40,000 tons was reported just last week. And that reflects only the tons Argus captures as part of its transparent HRC market snapshot—not the market at large.
“It’s easy to say there’s nothing or little available,” a buyer in the Midwest said. “And that may be so if you are in a rush for delivery. But if you do the work and are willing to wait a bit, you can find spot material.”
Another source, for example, pointed to US Steel’s Granite City as a supply option, which restarted its blast furnace earlier this year. “You’ve also seen SDI shipping record sheet volumes—it ain’t all contract,” he added.