diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
index b4d77d66521c3a..85083cd462740e 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/openblas/package.py
@@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ class Openblas(MakefilePackage):
     conflicts('%intel@16', when='@0.2.15:0.2.19')
     conflicts('~shared~static')
 
+    # Use newer assembler to allow avx2 instructions
+    depends_on('binutils', type='build', when='os=rhel6')
+
     @property
     def parallel(self):
         # unclear whether setting `-j N` externally was supported before 0.3