USA HRC Spot Price at $1,170/ton as Climb Slows
The US spot market for hot-rolled coil (HRC) remains extremely tight early this week, according to both buy- and sell-side market participants who tell WSD that there are limited transactions generally taking place around $1,170 per ton. Lead times are now well into October.
“Data shows that imports are on the rise, and that’s slowing the domestic price escalation that we’ve seen,” a steel distributor told WSD. “But they are still climbing, albeit at a slower rate.”
Cognizant of the building import situation, Nucor again tempered its Consumer Spot Price (CSP) with just a $10 hike to $1,155 per ton on Monday from mills in the South and Midwest—still below the level of most reported transactions.
“What I found interesting is that Nucor raised is CSI (West Coast) price by $15 per ton for the second consecutive week,” a steel trader said. “That (CSI’s CSP) is often lost in the shuffle—but it now stands at $1,215 per ton and is $60 per ton higher than the CSP from all other mills.”
A sign of the overall increasing import supply, late last week the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported the finished steel import market share was an estimated 17% in June, while being pegged at 16% over the first six months of 2026.
Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the AISI reported that the US imported a total of 2,092,000 net tons (nt) of steel in June 2026, including 1,457,000 nt of finished steel. Key steel products with a substantial import increase in June compared to May were line pipe (up 94%), hot-rolled sheet (up 28%), sheet and strip all other metallic coated (up 19%) and structural pipe and tubing (up 18%).
In June, the largest suppliers were South Korea (422,000 nt, up 6% vs. May), Canada (294,000 nt, up 4%), Brazil (245,000 nt, down 26%), Mexico (191,000 nt, up 4%) and Vietnam (151,000 nt, up 6%).
Nonetheless, over the 12-month period July 2025 to June 2026, total and finished steel imports are down 22% and 25.9%, respectively, versus the prior 12-month period.
“A big supply-side question is if upcoming mill maintenance outages will offset the expected arrival of import cargos over the next several weeks,” a service center buyer noted. “Demand has been steadily buoyant,” he added.