Steel Mills

Nucor maintains plate prices, opens October order book

September 11, 2025

Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat for a seventh straight month with the opening of its October order book.

In a letter to customers on Thursday, the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said it would maintain last month’s price, effective with new orders received on Thursday, Sept. 11.

The company said pricing applied equally to carbon, normalized, and quenched-and-tempered products.

Nucor said its base price for normalized and quenched-and-tempered plate is $1,475 and $2,645 per short ton (st), respectively.

“We reserve the right to review and re-quote any offers that are not confirmed with either a Nucor sales acknowledgment or written acceptance by both parties,” the company said in the letter.

Nucor has held plate prices unchanged for the past seven months after kickstarting the year with four consecutive increases from January to March, totaling $300/st, according to SMU’s mill price announcement calendar.

The latest pricing note from Nucor would, in theory, place its base A36 discrete plate at ~$1,275/st, for standard thickness and width.

SMU’s plate price stands at $985/st on average as of Sept. 9, down $25/st week on week. Plate prices have been on a steady decline since early July, and down ~$70/st over the past month, according to SMU’s interactive pricing tool, which you can find 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.