Amid stagnant, but still steady, demand in the last couple weeks, US domestic plate spot prices have firmed. Plate buyers have been hesitant with purchases throughout December, only buying material immediately necessary while keeping inventories lean for the end of the year, while mills attempt to keep pushing for their November-announced price increases. After trending toward the top of the $35.00-$36.00 cwt. ($772-$794/mt or $700-$720/nt) ex-Midwest mill range the last few weeks, spot prices have risen to $36.00-$37.00 ($794-$816/mt or $720-$740/nt) ex-Midwest mill. Service center sources said that while they haven't been able to transfer the mill-level increases entirely over into resale prices, they have had increasingly more success and there is optimism for the January price trend should US scrap prices settle higher.
Also helping to push up US domestic spots is less import competition than in months past. Current import offers are not low enough to spur any major buying activity--Korean offer prices are currently just under $33.00 cwt. ($728/mt or $660/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports, a price many potential buyers say "simply isn't good enough." Additionally, rumors of a trade case against Korean plate early next year continue to swirl. Arriving imports into the US have slowed substantially in the last couple months as well, lessening the glut of plate available at many US ports. According to US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, as of December 27, cut-length plate imports were 41,838 mt (license data) this month, down from 57,854 mt (license data ) in November, 93,572 (census data) in October and 106,648 mt in September.