USA Mills See Pickup in HRC Buying Activity as ‘Mild Panic’ Creeps In

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.

Spot prices for domestic-made hot-rolled coil (HRC) in the US market are reported early this week by market participants (both buyers and sellers alike) generally in a range of $880-$900 per ton. Nucor on Monday raised its Consumer Spot Price (CSP) for HRC to $910/ton, which is up 5.2%, or $45 per ton since its August low offering of $865/ton.

Nucor’s previous CSP on November 10 was $895/ton. Re-roller NLMK, on November 12, announced a $50/ton hike to presumably around $900/ton for January orders. Most mills have closed their December order books, according to buyers, with lead times pushing out to six-to-eight weeks.

Service centers were shaving inventory leading into the fourth quarter, market participants have reported. “In some cases, they were expecting that they could dangle large tons out in front of mills to get a cheap deal to start building back inventory,” explained one mill rep. “With mill lead times moving out faster than they expected, some of them are in a bad spot with in-house and on-order inventory, creating some mild panic in places,” he added.

The result is a pickup in end-of-year activity. “Domestic HRC—for a typical size spot order—is now generally right around $900 per ton,” a steel trader said. Nucor’s CSP of $910 now matches its recent high of mid-July.

“We sold a few thousand tons of HRC recently at $950 per ton,” added a mill rep.

For the most part, the price gains and renewed activity are largely supply-driven, supported by recent mill outages and steady demand. Automotive and energy sectors are cited as the end markets with the healthiest level of demand.

But imports are also dropping sharply (see related story below). “I believe that the inventory overhang has been worked way down in several cases creating a need to buy more,” added the mill rep. “The import price proposition has not been compelling, so there is going to be a gap in fourth quarter and first quarter (2026) import arrivals.”

Aside from November, monthly HRC futures contracts on the CME through March 2026 all settled well above $900 per ton in Monday trading.

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.