A quick look at a few of the bigger things affecting our business this week.
Steel: Prices keep climbing. Nucor raised its hot-rolled coil spot price for the third straight week, up another $10/ton to $1,155/ton, and its West Coast joint venture (California Steel Industries) went even higher, up $15 to $1,215/ton. SMU’s broader price indices are at multi-year highs across the board. The driver hasn’t changed — 50% Section 232 tariffs are keeping imports out and giving domestic mills room to keep raising prices. If you’ve been waiting for a dip, there’s still no sign of one.
Oil: Sharp reversal this week, the other direction for once. ANS dropped $6.08 on August 3 to close at $75.54, with WTI down $4.33 to $80.34 and Brent down $6.35 to $83.77, after President Trump paused U.S. hostilities again to give diplomacy with Iran another shot — reportedly with an outline in place to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. We’ve seen this pattern before this summer: prices spike on conflict, drop on ceasefire hope, then it’s anyone’s guess which way it breaks next. Don’t read too much into any single week’s number.
Infrastructure: Some actual good news here. The Senate has negotiated a continuing resolution that would extend highway and transit funding under the infrastructure law through December 11 — pushing back what had been a September 30 cliff. It’s contract authority only, not the full advance appropriations, and it still needs to pass, but it buys some breathing room for anyone with government-funded work on the books this fall.
Bottom line: Steel’s still climbing with no relief in sight, oil just swung back down on ceasefire hopes (don’t bank on it holding), and the infrastructure funding deadline just got a bit of breathing room, assuming the CR passes. Reach out if you want to talk through what any of this means for your project.
Steel: Steel Market Update, Nucor, Yieh Corp. Oil: Petroleum News. Infrastructure: FFIS, Congress.gov.