Steel Mills

Nucor cuts plate prices by $100/ton, cites market conditions

Written by David Schollaert

October 30, 2024

Nucor Corp. announced that its plate mill group would cut prices for as-rolled, discrete, cut-to-length, and normalized plate with the opening of its December order book.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said in a letter to customers on Tuesday evening, Oct. 29, that tags would be lowered by $100 per short ton (st), bringing its base price to $975/st. That’s the first decrease since it slashed tags by $125/st on July 1.

The company suggested the price cut was to stay competitive, adding that it was due to market conditions and to provide customers with “pricing transparency.”

“We will continue to monitor the levels of import arrivals and other market activity to ensure our pricing remains competitive in the market,” the letter said.

Nucor said the decrease was effective immediately. The price for normalized plate decreased to $1,175/st, it said in a revised letter Wednesday morning.

Absent from the steelmaker’s pricing notice letter was any pricing on quenched-and-tempered products. However, Nucor noted quenched-and-tempered at $2,345/st on its price list sheet.

SMU’s plate price stands at $895/st on average, down $10/st from a week ago. Our HR price is at $685/st on average, unchanged from a week earlier – up just $50/st from a recent low of $635/st in late July. That information comes from our pricing archives, which you can find here.

Also, you can track mill price announcements here.

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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