Steel Prices
Nucor Drops Plate Prices $140/ton on Import and Domestic Competition
Written by Michael Cowden
October 30, 2023
Nucor’s plate mill group (NPG) will cut prices for as-rolled discrete plate and normalized plate by $140 per ton ($7 per cwt).
The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said it would also drop prices for quenched-and-tempered plate by $80 per ton.
Nucor said the lower prices would be effective with new orders received on Wednesday, Oct. 31. The company also said the move was made in tandem with the opening of its plate mill order book for December.
“Due to higher levels of imported, higher-carbon emissions product and domestic participants lowering the transaction price, the NPG will be lowering the current published price,” Nucor said in a letter to customers dated Monday, Oct. 30.
The steelmaker did not specify which domestic competitors it was referring to.
On the import side, the US was licensed to bring in 53,880 metric tons of cut-to-length plate from abroad in October, according to Commerce Department figures.
License data for October are not yet complete. But that figure already represents an increase of 17% over the 46,128 tons imported in September.
Nucor did not specify which imports it might have been referring to. The largest sources of foreign plate in October so far have been South Korea (20,943 tons), Canada (11,302 tons), Germany (5,421 tons), and Romania (5,307 tons).
South Korea and Canada are typically among the largest sources of plate imported into the US. Germany had not shipped more than 1,000 tons of plate to the US since December 2021. Romania had not shipped significant quantities of plate to the US since November 2022.
Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest in Steel Prices
HRC vs. prime scrap spread narrows in May
The spread between hot-rolled coil (HRC) and prime scrap prices narrowed this month, according to SMU’s most recent pricing data.
CRU: Falling steel prices limit demand for imports into US
The recent decline in US hot-rolled (HR) coil and longs prices has further restricted demand for imported material. Despite the decline in US sheet prices, CR coil and HDG imports remain attractive. While demand for imports of longs products has been limited, buyers have increased imports of wire products to avoid wire rods’ higher tariffs. […]
HR futures: Grinding lower while grinding to a halt
The last time we were together on April 18, the June hot-rolled coil (HRC) future was sitting around the $800 support level where the May future found a bottom in mid-February.
SMU price ranges: Sheet nears five-month lows
Steel prices were overall mixed this week, according to our latest check on the market. Sheet prices were flat to down, while plate prices inched up. SMU indices on hot rolled, cold rolled, and galvanized are now down to the lowest levels seen since November.
Galvanized prices maintain big premium over HR
Prices for hot-rolled (HR) coil in recent weeks have been declining faster than those for galvanized sheet, resulting in a growing price spread between the two steel products.