The US domestic plate spot market has been under increased pricing pressure over the last couple weeks, following a major drop in scrap prices. Domestic scrap prices plunged $50-$70/lt in June, depending on grade and region and prices are expected to remain soft in July. The drop in scrap prices has only further reduced plate spot buying activity, which had been extremely cautious the last couple months as it is. Furthermore, previously imported plate is still impacting both buying patterns and domestic spot prices as many buyers are still able to purchase less expensive import plate from traders' unsold positions. US Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data show that 113,083 mt (license data) of coiled plate arrived in May, in addition to 98,627 mt of cut-length plate.
The general plate spot range is down $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) since late May to $44.00-$45.00 cwt. ($970-$992/mt or $880-$900/nt) ex-Midwest mill. However, industry insiders told SteelOrbis that some mills have made deals on plate from stock for about $1.00 cwt. lower, in order to be competitive with import material. Currently, plate import offers from Turkey and Korea are up about $1.00 cwt. in the last couple weeks to $41.00-$43.00 cwt. ($904-$948/mt or $820-$860/nt) DDP loaded truck in US Gulf ports. As would be expected, with the spread between US domestic spot prices and import offer prices narrowing substantially in recent weeks, import bookings have slowed.