Discontentment brews in plate market with flat, status-quo pricing

“Mills won’t admit it, but they’re making deals in the $980s [per short ton] right now. Business is inconsistent at best. Prices are too low. Projects are too few. I don’t see any price changes on plate coming,” he said.

Today, Tuesday, Aug. 12, SMU assessed domestic carbon and alloy steel plate prices ranging from $970/st to $1,140/st, with an average of $1,055/st. In the equivalent week of 2024, average spot market plate prices were $1,005/st. (Prices are ex-works, domestic mill, unless otherwise noted.)

A plate market consumer in the Eastern US said projects will come and plate prices will increase in the second half of 2025.

“Plate demand is currently stagnant but will be improving soon,” the buyer commented.  

A distributor in the Midwest contends that mill pricing letters are incongruent with actual spot market plate prices. 

“[Steelmaker] needs to eliminate their monthly published plate base price. It has no relevance to market pricing or what they are offering,” said the second source, highlighting the disparity pointed out by the first plate source. 

Another large-scale service center operator underscored this point.

“[A domestic steelmaker] says they’re ‘holding prices’ but dropped [prices by] at least $40/short ton (st) compared to last month. Now, they are taking $1050/st and lead times are ~4 weeks,” he said.

While most other sources noted that imports were not attractive, this operator said, “There is so much opportunity out of Houston for plate imports. Turkish plate is available at $940/st (delivered) and Brazil’s plate is $960/st (delivered), both into Houston, for September shipment.”

A West Coast distributor thinks projects could pick up if interest rates become more attractive. Asked whether interest rates matter when supply prices are so low and materials are so plentiful, the source agreed it’s a confusing time.  

“I don’t think we’re going to see much in the way of small and medium-sized projects with current interest rates. Yes, very large projects and data centers are starting to crop up,” said the same distributor.  

He added a point that demonstrated the conflict many in the market have expressed: “Plate isn’t competitive since there are less mills producing it. I was reading this weekend that this has been the least disruptive pricing era we’ve seen in over 30 years. Maybe we shouldn’t be complaining with that in mind.” 

For more information about plate prices, check out SMU’s interactive pricing tool here.