US plate mills attempted to keep prices level for August by making no change to base prices and keeping the raw material surcharge (RMS) unchanged from July, but domestic spot prices are still falling.
Led by Nucor in mid-July, domestic plate mills kept the RMS surcharge unchanged for August, after a $0.75 cwt. ($15/nt or $17/mt) increase for July, in addition to announcing no change to base prices for the third consecutive month. But despite the attempted neutral move, domestic plate spot prices are still trending lower. Following a $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) drop two weeks ago, US domestic plate spot prices have slipped another $1.00 cwt. to the current range of $51.00-$52.00 cwt. ($1,124-$1,146/mt or $1,020-$1,040/nt) ex-Midwest mill.
In addition to a general slowdown in plate mill order entry rates, domestic plate spot prices are still under pressure from boosted buyer inventories from high levels of arriving imports. Growing US plate inventories while domestic spot prices are still falling has resulted in buyers sitting on their hands waiting for prices to hit bottom. Nonetheless, while domestic plate spot prices may continue to trend down by about $1.00 cwt. in August, with certain demand sectors (primarily from the energy, truck-trailer and wind tower manufacturing) remaining steady, plate spot prices may again begin to level out in early fall.
While the US plate market continues to slow, import activity has picked up. After a quiet start to July with few import offers even available, the number of offers as well as import booking activity has livened in the last two weeks. New offer prices from Russia have been heard in the range of $43.00-$44.00 cwt. ($948-$970/mt or $860-$880/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, but sources tell SteelOrbis that these Russian plate offers were quickly booked, and little--if any--may still be available. Turkey is also offering plate to the US at $45.00-$46.00 cwt. ($992-$1,014/mt or $900-$920/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, and Brazilian plate prices for the US are about $1.00 cwt. higher.
