Steel prices stall as demand from manufacturers begins to soften again

I wrote a month ago that steel prices were shooting back up again—and did they ever.

Steel Market Update (SMU) recorded two consecutive weeks of triple-digit price gains in March. SMU also recorded the highest week-over-week gain we’ve ever seen in hot-rolled coil (HRC)—$210/ton.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—and subsequent shocks to raw material costs and supply chains—drove prices higher. Prices shot higher not only for steel, ferrous scrap, and pig iron, but also for ferroalloys and energy. It was the same story on both sides of the Atlantic.

The sharp week-over-week gains have since moderated. We saw HRC prices dip in mid-April for the first time since the outset of the war. The decline was modest, but we saw flat or modestly lower prices across several of the products we track. We don’t think that trend is an outlier.