• Skip to main content

    Plate

    Plate report: Mills pushing price up, but still willing to talk

    Written by David Schollaert


    US plate prices just last week hit their lowest level in more than four years, and a fraction of their all-time high of $1,940 per short ton (st) in May 2022. But repeated mill price hikes this week may have stopped the bleeding and could signal a rebound.

    Nucor kicked things off, notifying customers Monday morning of a $60/st price bump on plate products. Evraz North America and SSAB Americas both followed the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker with $60/st increases of their own.

    David Schollaert

    Read more from David Schollaert

    Latest in Plate

    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.