The continued erosion of US domestic plate spot prices is resulting in substantially constrained resale prices at service centers. Domestic spot market prices are between $44.00-$45.00 cwt. ($970-$992/mt or $880-$900/nt) ex-Midwest mill, unchanged in the last couple weeks, but most activity is toward the bottom of the range and some even below. For the time being, spot prices still have potential to drop again in the next couple weeks following another anticipated drop in scrap next month. The negative market sentiment is putting added pressure on many distributors' resale costs due to more expensive plate inventories. Imports of commodity grades of plate continue to impact the market as well, according to sources, as availability of less expensive and already-imported plate at some Gulf and Southeast ports is dampening US domestic prices at both the mill and service center levels.
US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data show that plate import arrivals haven't slowed much since the extremely heavy arrivals in March and April. In May, 106,782 mt (preliminary census data) of cut length plate arrived, and another 85,881 mt (license data) in June as of June 26. July arrivals are expected to moderate, which will likely relieve some of the pressure on US domestic spots. As for futures, Korean and Turkish offer prices are still largely in the range of $41.00-$43.00 cwt. ($904-$948/mt or $820-$860/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, as they were two weeks ago, but because many typical import buyers already placed sufficient offshore orders in May or earlier this month, import interest is quiet.