Plate market sources expect mill price hikes, say business remains a steady trickle 

One East Coast mid-sized service center associate says that mills are negotiating only when it suits specific production needs and are less flexible than a few weeks ago. His business continues to operate at a steady but slow pace, akin to a traditional summer slump.  

“Business-wise, not much happening at the moment, go figure. Business this week has been brutal, demand is below average, especially for this time of year,” he said. 

The same East Coast source says that this week the market is gossiping about domestic plate producer strategy.  

“Mills are claiming they want to dig in in November and set a new floor,” the source said. “Rumblings persist about a [domestic mill] announcing an increase soon for November, we’ll see…” 

 He stated, “And an increase from what price? [Mills will] probably will try to set a floor during an interesting time with the holidays around the corner.” 

A Midwestern distributor offered similar commentary about his week. 

“Business remains inconsistent to slow. SMU’s price is accurate, but we could possibly see an increase from [the same domestic mill as noted above] in November,” he said. “They say it’s because of the outage, but also because they are resuming line pipe production.”

The distributor said that he’s keeping an eye on whether scrap prices will “move up to affect year-end plate pricing.” 

A second Midwestern based source believes that the mills are making deals below SMU’s current base price.  

“Mills could be trying to offload a little extra inventory by delivering all in at $48 [per hundredweight],” he said.  

Plate prices decreased to $975 per short ton (st) this week from $985/st last week, according to SMU’s most recent pricing data.

All prices are ex-work, domestic mill base prices unless otherwise noted.