Steel Maker Decides Against New Price Hike

PITTSBURGH — USX-U.S. Steel Group, the nation’s largest steel maker, said it has decided not to raise carbon steel prices a third time this year, despite heavy demand and a competitor’s move last week to boost its prices by $20 a ton in October.

Don Herring, a spokesman for USX Corp., U.S. Steel’s parent company, said the Pittsburgh steel producer won’t match the 3% price increase announced last Monday by Middletown, Ohio-based AK Steel Corp., the nation’s sixth-largest steel maker.

With the steel industry enjoying its best year in more than a decade because of the U.S. economy’s recovery and a boom in auto production, analysts had predicted that a third round of base price increases was inevitable.

USX-U.S. Steel and its rivals previously raised their prices for flat-rolled carbon sheet products by about 3% in January and another 2% effective next month. Flat-rolled carbon sheet is typically used for auto bodies and appliances.

But USX-U.S Steel’s decision not to raise prices lessens the chances that the next four largest producers--Bethlehem Steel Corp., LTV Corp., National Steel Corp. and Inland Steel Industries--will follow AK Steel’s lead.

Before the year started, USX-U.S. Steel told its customers that base steel prices would go up in January and July.

USX-U.S. Steel “has decided not to implement any changes other than those we’ve announced,” Herring said.