The carbon steel US plate price increased to highest level since mid-April on Friday October 2 after domestic mills announced price increases and mostly filled order books through October.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US was at $۲۹ per hundredweight ($580 per short ton) on Friday, up by 5.5% from $27.50 per cwt on September 25 and by 11.5% from $26 per cwt on September 11. The price is also up by 16% from this year’s low of $25 per cwt on August 21.
At least three of North American plate mills – SSAB Americas, Nucor Corp and Algoma Steel – announced price increases during the week of September 28. Some distributors said Nucor’s announcement, setting a minimum delivered price of $31.50 per cwt, was the most influential in resultant quotations.
The September increases were the plate mills’ third round of increases since August, but real transaction prices have lagged both the stated amounts of the hikes and the performance of other US flat-rolled steel prices.
*** hot-rolled coil index
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US, which was calculated at $30.99 per cwt on Friday, has risen by more than $9 per cwt from the 2020 low of $21.89 per cwt on April 30 and by $۲ per cwt from $28.99 per cwt on the first business day of January.
The plate price, meanwhile, trails by $3 per cwt the $32-per-cwt level recorded on January 2, and has been cheaper than HRC since early September because the end-use markets for plate have been notably weaker – especially oil and gas and rail car manufacturing.
Lacking a demand-based rationale, plate mills have been pushing the idea that price increases are needed to offset their higher costs for raw materials, including ferrous scrap.
The plate price “is up a bit but not near as strong as HRC,” according to a southern distributor who buys both items. “The announcements are there but [plate is] not rising as fast as [mills] would want.”
*** US plate prices
Service centers stocked up a bit after determining that plate prices had bottomed in late summer. But distributors will not need much more inventory after that, unless newly elected officials in Washington pass a large federal infrastructure bill in the new year.
Lead times are now reported at four-five weeks at most mills.
“Technically they’re into November. It’s a shell game right now,” a midwestern distributor said. “People are not going to order much right now.”
If plate mills do struggle to attract orders in the fourth quarter, discounting is likely, some market participants said.
“I expect that both Nucor and SSAB will offer some concessions, and some early rumblings from them indicate they have interest to try to fill up their books through end of year, and they are seeing some challenges to doing that,” a plate consumer said.
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