The US domestic plate market has slowed in the last two weeks with lower activity and a decline in spot prices.
US domestic plate spot prices peaked in early May and had been softening slightly throughout June, falling $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) last month even after domestic plate mills announced that they would keep base prices level for July, but raised the raw material surcharge (RMS) $15/nt. Even with mills' attempted neutral move for July, plate spot prices have edged down $1.00 cwt. again in the last two weeks. Domestic plate spot prices are now in the $52.00-$53.00 cwt. ($1,146-$1,168/mt or $1,040-$1,060/nt) ex-Midwest mill range, and are likely to remain mostly stable throughout July as plate supply is still relatively tight. But, if the perceived "typical summer slowdown" continues in August, another slight downtick may be inevitable.
Aside from a slight drop in activity, ongoing competition from already-arrived imports has also contributed to softening US domestic plate spot prices. Positions bought by traders, particularly of Russian plate, are still being sold off near US Gulf regions for prices about $2.00 cwt. ($44/mt or $40/nt) under current US domestic plate spot prices. The US saw an influx of Russian plate arrive in June, as well as an increase in overall arriving plate imports. US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data show that 86,838 mt (license data) of cut-to-length plate arrive in June compared to 61,721 mt (preliminary census data) arriving in May. In June, Russia exported 13,504 mt of plate to the US compared to 4,978 mt in May, reaching the highest level in over two years. Cut-to-length plate imports to the US from Korea also jumped in June to 6,284 mt compared to 1,514 mt in May.
Current plate import offers, on the other hand, have silenced. The last Russian offers in the range of $46.00-$47.00 cwt. ($1,014-$1,036/mt or $920-$940/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports heard two weeks ago have dissipated, and no new legitimate offers have been heard since. Sources indicate that the lack of import offers may be due to little US buyer interest in booking futures while the US domestic price trend is still uncertain.