Published by: Chris Kavanagh<>
4 Apr 2025 @ 03:45 UTC
Hot-rolled coil prices in the US South fell on Wednesday April 2, on the back of market uncertainty surrounding the evolving US tariff policies, which have stunted spot demand over the past week, sources said.

Fastmarkets’ weekly steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US South was calculated at $46.81 per hundredweight ($936.20 per short ton) on Wednesday April 2, down 1.06% from $47.31 per cwt on March 26.
Inputs were collected in both the buyer and seller sub-indices in a range from $45.00-47.50 per cwt on Wednesday, representing deals, offers and general assessments of market activity.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest was calculated at $47.18 per cwt on Wednesday, little changed from $47.19 per cwt on March 26.
Steelmaker Nucor had announced on March 31 that it would hold its weekly consumer spot price for hot-rolled products at a $46.75 per cwt ($935 per ton) base for the remainder of this week, unchanged from the week prior, following nine consecutive weekly increases.
Prices have levelled off over the previous few weeks, following a surge at the inception of tariff discussions by the Trump administration.
We’ve seen the market stall out, a distributor source said.
I think the mill number is too high and doesn’t represent the market. I don’t know anyone actually buying at these numbers, a service center source said.
Market participants attributed the stagnant price level to waning spot demand as buyers have become more cautious in light of tariff induced market uncertainty, sources told Fastmarkets.
We are seeing buyers get a little cautious about how many orders they are ready to place, yet the price of the spot transactions has not changed, a steel mill source said.
I’m not seeing a lot of action. Most orders are just for what people needed. No one is buying ahead, the distributor source said.
The evolving tariff policy over the last several weeks has given rise to concern among buyers, which could continue to carry over into the near term, according to sources.
More concerning is that the ‘unknowns’ and the ‘on again, off again’ tariff rhetoric has just left people on hold. Not knowing the rules of the game is worse than playing an unfair game, the distributor source said.
My fear is that people will put off buying goods in the third quarter because of price fears and we may see some further softening in order books, not the increase that we projected early this year, the distributor source added.