Rebar Market Update
As March begins, the rebar market remains strong in several regions. While terrible weather plagued much of the East Coast in February, that was not enough to deter sentiment throughout the entire country, with most regions reporting solid demand, tight but adequate supply, and a solid backlog moving out of the winter season. Throwing in some pent-up demand from the East Coast after the seasonal stall, most view the rebar market as very bullish heading into the spring months. Recent events in Iran as well as the ruling by the Supreme Court on tariffs earlier this month are expected to have little impact currently on the rebar market, neither positively nor negatively.
On the domestic side, pricing remains high after the January price increases are fully in play. In some regions the price is facing headwinds, especially those where weather has been a factor. As a result of the pressure on the January price increases, mills have yet to increase pricing from the February scrap price bump of $30/ton. Rather, they are looking to create price stability in the face of upcoming import supply pressure as well as domestic capacity increases that are now helping to grow the overall supply picture. In general, lead times have reduced, and mills are now back to more normal lead times on rebar with their rolling despite still being sold out on upcoming rollings.
On the import front, foreign mills are looking to increase pricing from offerings 30-60 days ago. The pressure of 50% tariffs and rising freight costs are pushing the transactional prices up. With domestic mills holding the line on pricing in February, the import increases are failing to garner attraction from US buyers for this go-around. As such, there has been a lull in new bookings in the latter part of February, and expectations are that the summer import arrivals will plateau after an initial bump in import arrival volumes to start the season.
On the scrap front, upward pricing on scrap appears to have paused. The weather that negatively impacted collections is now facing the inevitable improvement with the shift heading into spring. While most do not expect a big change for March, the longer outlook looks to be heading down into spring. This trend is not uncommon in the steel market, with rising scrap in the winter due to tight collections, followed by an easing in the spring. 2026 appears to be following that trend. We will update you when scrap does post the final to start in March.
In the meantime, have a great start to the week and the month!
