Hot-rolled coil and plate prices by country (HS 7208)
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Hot-rolled coil and plate (HS 7208) cleared customs at a median 721 USD per tonne on import and 806 USD per tonne on export in 2024, down 13.5 % against 2023, across 32 reporting markets.
Hot-rolled coil is the reference product of the steel trade. Almost every other heading on this site starts life as a coil off a hot strip mill, which is why its customs unit value is the number buyers quote back at each other when they argue about whether a price is fair.
- 724 USD/tmedian import unit value, 2024
- 32reporting markets
- HS 7208customs heading
Median import unit value in other units: 721 USD/t · 0.72 USD/kg · 0.327 USD/lb
Import unit values by country
What each market paid for hot-rolled coil and plate, 2024
| Country | Tonnes | USD/tonne | Value (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 6,637,117 | 852 | 5,655.0 |
| Türkiye | 6,409,078 | 663 | 4,249.6 |
| Italy | 5,995,338 | 712 | 4,271.1 |
| Spain | 5,747,389 | 733 | 4,211.2 |
| United Arab Emirates | 3,667,712 | 724 | 2,656.3 |
| Saudi Arabia | 2,865,302 | 709 | 2,032.7 |
| Poland | 2,720,615 | 801 | 2,180.3 |
| Netherlands | 1,606,887 | 904 | 1,452.0 |
| Egypt | 1,217,501 | 785 | 955.3 |
| United Kingdom | 1,069,754 | 819 | 876.1 |
| Oman | 1,041,250 | 664 | 690.9 |
| Uzbekistan | 1,032,133 | 655 | 675.8 |
| Tanzania | 843,524 | 664 | 559.8 |
| South Africa | 842,807 | 696 | 586.6 |
| Canada | 830,339 | 1,005 | 834.6 |
| Algeria | 744,979 | 706 | 525.6 |
| Kenya | 724,159 | 639 | 462.7 |
| Romania | 483,093 | 841 | 406.3 |
| Kazakhstan | 293,640 | 650 | 190.8 |
| Jordan | 258,229 | 646 | 166.8 |
| Tunisia | 235,608 | 718 | 169.1 |
| Morocco | 208,376 | 892 | 185.9 |
| Australia | 162,953 | 808 | 131.6 |
| Nigeria | 126,967 | 822 | 104.3 |
| Kuwait | 120,397 | 828 | 99.7 |
| Qatar | 117,036 | 724 | 84.8 |
| Iraq | 106,296 | 1,455 | 154.6 |
| Ghana | 105,007 | 702 | 73.7 |
| Lebanon | 93,940 | 728 | 68.3 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 56,822 | 687 | 39.1 |
| Senegal | 39,103 | 674 | 26.3 |
| Bahrain | 19,664 | 1,015 | 20.0 |
Declared value divided by declared net mass, sorted by volume. Import valuation is normally CIF, so freight and insurance sit inside the figure.
Export unit values by country
What each exporter received for hot-rolled coil and plate, 2024
| Country | Tonnes | USD/tonne | Value (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 6,854,763 | 864 | 5,922.1 |
| Türkiye | 5,985,124 | 645 | 3,861.4 |
| Netherlands | 2,417,909 | 826 | 1,997.3 |
| Italy | 1,886,965 | 851 | 1,605.9 |
| Spain | 1,441,409 | 825 | 1,189.0 |
| Canada | 1,314,723 | 924 | 1,214.7 |
| Kazakhstan | 1,120,893 | 580 | 649.8 |
| Egypt | 1,108,674 | 774 | 858.0 |
| Poland | 674,006 | 820 | 552.5 |
| Australia | 545,852 | 585 | 319.3 |
| Saudi Arabia | 278,627 | 742 | 206.8 |
| South Africa | 274,345 | 779 | 213.6 |
| United Arab Emirates | 265,097 | 938 | 248.6 |
| Romania | 252,303 | 806 | 203.4 |
| United Kingdom | 105,909 | 897 | 95.0 |
| Ghana | 88,293 | 745 | 65.7 |
| Morocco | 78,022 | 678 | 52.9 |
| Tanzania | 15,759 | 906 | 14.3 |
| Oman | 15,438 | 636 | 9.8 |
| Senegal | 10,136 | 810 | 8.2 |
| Kuwait | 6,942 | 846 | 5.9 |
| Uzbekistan | 4,069 | 695 | 2.8 |
| Lebanon | 3,635 | 753 | 2.7 |
| Kenya | 3,495 | 1,034 | 3.6 |
| Jordan | 3,103 | 773 | 2.4 |
| Tunisia | 998 | 803 | 0.8 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 352 | 1,863 | 0.7 |
| Bahrain | 181 | 1,037 | 0.2 |
| Nigeria | 16 | 1,009 | 0.0 |
Export valuation is normally FOB at the port of loading.
Reading the hot-rolled coil and plate numbers
- Across the reporting markets the lowest landed number is Kenya at 639 USD per tonne and the highest is Iraq at 1,455. The 128 % gap is not one market being clever: it is thickness, width, grade and how far the coil had to travel.
- Reporting markets took 46,423,015 tonnes of hot-rolled coil and plate in 2024, 34,797 million dollars of trade, with Germany absorbing 14 % of the tonnage on its own.
- The sharpest re-roller in the set is Côte d'Ivoire, receiving 1,176 USD per tonne more on export than it pays on import — coil in, coated or cut product out.
What sits inside HS 7208
Everything from 1.5 mm commercial coil to 100 mm quenched and tempered plate sits in this single heading, which is why its unit value moves with product mix as much as with the market.
- Compare like with like before you use any of these numbers: 2 mm commercial coil and 40 mm quenched plate are the same customs heading and several hundred dollars apart.
- Pickled and oiled material carries a premium of roughly 30 to 60 USD per tonne over black coil in most lanes, and it is invisible in customs data.
- Mill order books, not spot demand, set the lead time. A rolled-to-order width is three to five weeks; ex-stock from a service centre is days.
- Width matters to price more than buyers expect. Anything under 1,000 mm or over 1,800 mm usually costs an extra rolling charge.
Why a customs heading is wider than a product specification →
Need a price for your size list?
If you are pricing coil rather than studying it, the thickness, width, grade and port decide the number — send those four and a tonnage.
Hot-rolled coil and plate unit values by year
Median customs unit value for HS 7208 by year, USD per tonne
| Year | Import median | Export median | Export change | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 581 | 645 | — | 16 |
| 2021 | 906 | 977 | +51.5 % | 14 |
| 2022 | 983 | 1,088 | +11.4 % | 15 |
| 2023 | 860 | 932 | -14.3 % | 26 |
| 2024 | 721 | 806 | -13.5 % | 27 |
Medians across every reporting market for the year, not a single mill's price. The export line is the cleaner trend signal because exporters declare a narrower product mix than importers.
Which markets moved, and when
Export unit value by market and year, USD per tonne (HS 7208)
| Market | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kazakhstan | 435 | — | 684 | 597 | 580 |
| Romania | 520 | — | 1,059 | 872 | 806 |
| Türkiye | 472 | 906 | — | 723 | 645 |
| Egypt | — | 903 | — | 754 | 774 |
| Germany | — | 911 | — | 972 | 864 |
| Saudi Arabia | — | 1,071 | — | 771 | 742 |
Blank cells mean the market reported no export of this heading that year, or the declared mass was too small to give a meaningful unit value.
Questions about hot-rolled coil and plate prices
What is the current price of hot-rolled coil?
Across 32 reporting markets the median customs unit value for HS 7208 was 721 USD per tonne on import and 806 USD per tonne on export in 2024 — about 0.72 USD per kilo. These are declared customs values, not mill offers: they tell you what buyers actually paid at the border, averaged over every thickness and grade inside the heading.
Are hot-rolled coil prices rising or falling?
The median export unit value moved down from 2023 to 2024 (-13.5 %). Because customs data is annual, this is a trend line rather than a spot signal: it tells you which way the year closed, not what a mill will quote next week.
Why do countries pay such different prices for the same HS code?
The spread runs from 639 USD per tonne in Kenya to 1,455 in Iraq. Three things explain almost all of it: thickness and width mix, grade (commercial versus structural or pressure-vessel), and freight distance. A market importing 2 mm commercial coil from a neighbour will always sit below one importing 25 mm normalised plate from another continent.
Is customs unit value a good index for tracking coil prices?
It is a good cross-check and a poor tick-by-tick index. Its strengths are coverage and independence — every tonne that crosses a border is counted, and no assessment judgement is involved. Its weakness is that it is annual and blends product mix. Use it to compare markets and years; use a mill quotation for a purchase decision.
What thicknesses and grades sit inside HS 7208?
Flat-rolled products over 600 mm wide, hot-rolled, not clad or coated — from thin commercial coil to heavy plate. That is why a single average hides a wide band: the same heading carries 1.5 mm coil for tube making and 50 mm plate for pressure vessels.