Adds Nucor price cut
Steelmakers Nucor and Gerdau Long Steel of North America announced today they are cutting prices of certain steel beam products by as much as $40/st.
Nucor announced on 29 April that it would reduce prices for most of its wide flange products by $40/st, effective today, and would suspend its $20/st adder on material being sold from mill inventory. Prices for most merchant and structural products would be reduced by $25/st.
The company cited domestic competition and reduction in raw material for the price decrease, and additional pressure from imports for reducing merchant and structural product pricing.
Gerdau said it was reducing prices for most wide flange and standard beam products by $40/st. A $20/st stock charge on beam product inventory is being eliminated.
Gerdau said the price of most angles, channels, flats, rounds and squares will decrease by $25/st.
The company pointed to falling scrap and raw material prices as a reason for its price move. Scrap prices are expected to drop by around $20/gt for May, and the Argus US hot-rolled coil steel price fell by $17.75/st this week to $670/st.
US HRC prices have fallen 9.6pc since the beginning of the year, when they were $740/st.
Gerdau's North American operations shipped 1.2mn st of steel products in the fourth quarter of 2018, a 23pc drop compared to the 1.6mn st shipped in the same period of 2017. The fall in shipments came after Gerdau divested multiple US steel rebar mills.
The move comes as President Donald Trump and top Democrats held talks to discuss a possible $2 trillion infrastructure spending package, a deal that could benefit the domestic steel industry through increased government spending.
