Steel: Trading
Contracts, agency prices and Shanghai rebar futures
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.Most steel is sold on contracts between mills and buyers or service centres, priced off assessments by agencies such as Platts, Argus and Fastmarkets. Futures exist but matter less than for base metals. Rebar and hot-rolled coil trade on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, hot-rolled coil on CME, and scrap and rebar on the LME. Steel varies by grade, shape and finish, which limits exchange trading. Its inputs are priced separately: iron ore and coking coal on indices, scrap on monthly composites such as Fastmarkets AMM's.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Construction firms, fabricators and service centres buy rebar, sections and coil, often monthly from mills or distributors
- Car makers and appliance makers sign annual or semi-annual contracts for coated and cold-rolled sheet
- Turkish and US mills buy scrap and semi-finished steel (Turkey 15.8% and the US 9.0% of 2024 semi-finished imports); the US took 44.2% of pig iron imports
- Indian buyers purchase from integrated mills at monthly list prices and from secondary producers in spot markets
Where it is sold (sellers)
- Integrated mills in China, Japan, Korea and India sell flat products domestically and export surpluses
- Brazil (20.1%), China (15.5%), Malaysia and Indonesia exported most semi-finished steel in 2024; Brazil and Ukraine led pig iron exports
- Mini-mills sell rebar and bars regionally
- Scrap yards and shredders sell scrap; the US exported to Turkey, Bangladesh and India in 2025
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) | Rebar and hot-rolled coil, 10 t lots, CNY | Most liquid steel futures in the world |
| CME | US Midwest hot-rolled coil (CRU index), 20 short tons | Main US hedging tool |
| LME | Steel scrap CFR Turkey (Argus) and steel rebar FOB Turkey (Platts), 10 t lots, cash-settled | International reference for scrap and long products |
Contract types
- Mill list prices revised monthly (common in India)
- Annual or semi-annual contracts with automakers, sometimes indexed to raw materials
- Spot sales through distributors and service centres
- Export cargoes priced FOB against Platts, Argus or Fastmarkets assessments
Top trading houses
- Stemcor
- Duferco
- Marubeni-Itochu Steel
How prices are discovered
- SHFE rebar and HRC futures
- Platts, Argus, Fastmarkets and CRU regional assessments
- US producer price index (BLS) and Fastmarkets AMM scrap composite
- India: BigMint assessments and Joint Plant Committee price data