Pittsburgh (Platts)--16Oct2012/213 pm EDT/1813 GMT

US Steel Corp. began informing customers Tuesday morning it will increase all flat-rolled steel prices by $40/st, effective immediately, sources told Platts.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker did not immediately confirm the price hike, but multiple sources said they had been told of the increase.

As has been reported, speculation had been percolating in the market that at least one mill was mulling an increase in an attempt to stop the recent slide in US spot market sheet prices. Sources also predicted other steelmakers would soon follow whichever mill took the lead with increases of their own.

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Platts hotrolled and coldrolled coil assessments currently stand at $570-590/st and $700-720/st, respectively. Both are ex-works, normalized to a midwest (Indiana) mill basis. At roughly the same point last month, HRC was going for $640-650/st and CRC around $750-760/st.

A southern steel distributor said he doubted Tuesday's price hike will stick. "Once again, the mills are taking the easy answer to solve their sales/profit problem," he said. "Yes, they need profit, but why not look on the cost side? This will pull ahead some orders, but (any momentum) will not last and will have cost them more than they anticipate."

--Christopher Davis, christopher_davis@platts.com
--Edited by Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com

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