As with last week, price points for US domestic plate are holding in the range of $44.50-$45.50 cwt. ($981-$1,003/mt or $890-$910/nt), ex-mill, and lead times are still hovering between four and six weeks. US import plate prices are also stable week-over-week, at $41-$43 cwt. ($904-$948/mt or $820-$860/nt), ex-warehouse.
Import tonnages appear to have trended downward year-over-year. Census data from the US Department of Commerce shows that for March 2018, the US imported 49,539 mt of plate from global sources; license data from March 2019 has import permits listed at 40,304 mt.
Sources close to SteelOrbis continue to cite a strong belief that US plate prices are “too high” based on historical spreads, saying that “either HRC prices would need to come up or plate prices would need to come down.” This, sellers say, combined with less-than-exciting order activity, has led many to suspect that additional downward pricing revisions are on the horizon.