Prices for carbon steel plate in America held steady week on week while mills increased asking prices in the aftermath of their late-August round of increase notifications.
*** Steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade
There was no consensus over mills’ near-term ability to collect their announced plate price increases in full during a period of exceptionally weak demand for the item. A jump in scrap input costs eventually may tip the scales in favor of the mills winning their increases, some market participants said. Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US was unchanged at $26 per hundredweight ($520 per short ton) on Friday September 4. The price strengthened for the first time in 2020 on August 28, but the assessment has still fallen by 18.8% from $32 per cwt at the start of this year.
The mills are formally telling customers that lead times are five to six weeks from most production sites. If true, that would represent an improvement from early in the summer, when lead times were consistently less than a month. Service centers in multiple regions reported that they remain reluctant to stock up until they better understand the new prices. “Things have slowed down,” a midwestern distributor said.
*** Domestic plate
“People are still keeping it close to the vest,” that source said of inventory levels at the service centers. The Fastmarkets price assessment for domestic plate slid to an almost four-year low of $25 per cwt on August 21 – before the increase letters. At the time, offers were reported as low as $23.50 per cwt. Since then, mills that specified price rises of $40 per ton ($2 per cwt) have increased their quotes by $20-60 per ton ($1-3 per cwt).
“The low, low deals were out there, but they have increased their asking prices. Next week, when October deliveries sort of settle, they might get a little bump, but is there enough demand to make it stick?” the midwestern distributor said on Friday September 4. “More people are seeing a slowdown. But inventories are exceptionally low, and scrap is going up.”
Purchase orders dried up after the highest of the offers began appearing, according to an East Coast distributor who said he knew no one buying last week. “Nope, not at all,” that distributor said. “Everyone thinks prices are way too high – like $2 per cwt too high and probably $3 per cwt too high.” Fastmarkets has proposed amendments to the steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US assessment. The proposed new quantity is a minimum of 50 tons. The proposed new location is fob US mill, excluding Pacific states (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii) as defined by the US Census Bureau.
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