Last Friday, US domestic plate mills announced their second $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt) price increase in less than a month. Although prices were mostly unchanged after the first, some speculated the move involved an “announce two to force the first into acceptance” strategy.
Yet this week, sources have confirmed that although prices had inched up “for about a day,” that the state of the market is soft.
“The market has gone from $28-$29 cwt. ($617-$639/mt or $560-$580/nt), to $27-$29 ($595-$639/mt or $540-$580/mt), ex-mill, although some buyers are paying as little as $26.50 cwt. ($584/mt or $530/nt), ex-mill. A lot of people questioned why in the world the mills were trying to raise prices because demand just is not there. It’s terrible, actually. I think the mills were trying to spur some buying by announcing the increase, but that definitely didn’t happen,” a source said.