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    Final Thoughts

    Written by David Schollaert


    US plate prices have been largely stable since the beginning of December after tags fell by $140 per ton following Nucor’s price cut notice at the end of November with the opening of it January order book. A move that caught many by surprise at the time. But since then, plate prices have varied by just $10 per ton on average from week to week.

    SMU’s most recent check of the market on Tuesday, Jan. 31, placed plate prices between $1,400-1,480 per ton with an average of $1,440 per ton FOB mill east of the Rockies – down $10 per ton week-on-week (WoW), according to our interactive pricing tool. (See also Figure 1.)

    David Schollaert

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    Plate supply squeeze tightens as demand presses higher

    The domestic plate market is showing few signs of relief for steel buyers. Lead times are stretching well beyond seasonal norms, spot availability has all but evaporated, and mills are drawing hard lines on contract volumes heading into 2027 negotiations. And the supply squeeze will likely intensify in a market that some industry sources say is structurally undersupplied because of stringent US trade and tariff policies. Imports have been arriving in larger volumes, and the expectation is they will continue to tick higher into 2027. The big question is whether those foreign tons will arrive in volumes sufficient to provide the relief steel consumers want.