While the US plate market is still relatively weak, market prices have been firming up along with a slight uptick in demand and slowly shrinking inventory levels over the past several weeks.
The US plate market has remained relatively neutral since our last report two weeks ago, in terms of domestic pricing; however, with scrap and flat rolled prices expected to climb by as much as $3.00 cwt. ($66/m tot $60/nt) over the next couple weeks, plate mills will likely announce another increase, regardless if plate demand remains weak.
In the meantime, most spot transaction prices are being found in the general range of $32.00 cwt. to $34.00 cwt. ($705/mt to $750/mt or $640/nt to $680/nt) FOB mill, with larger customers with sizable tonnage finding offers at the low end of the range and smaller companies seeing offers in the higher end, and in some cases, up to about $35.00 cwt. ($772/mt or $700/nt) FOB mill.
On the import side, there remains excess tonnage at port docks from deals gone awry over the past year, but that tonnage has been dwindling. However, buyers looking to pick up some quick tonnage sitting dockside, mostly at US Gulf ports, may be able to do so at around $31.00 cwt. to $32.00 cwt. ($683/mt to $705/mt or $620/nt to $640/nt). Meanwhile, some offshore offers have been heating up in recent weeks. Malaysian mills have been offering plate to the US at about $34.50 cwt. to $35.00 cwt. ($761/mt to $772/mt or $690/nt to $700/nt) FOB West Coast and around $31.50 cwt. to $32.00 cwt. ($694/mt to $705/mt or $630/nt to $640/nt) FOB US Gulf Coast. Nevertheless, most traders are still just feeling out import plate offers, as US domestic prices are too comparable.