Nucor (officially) holds plate prices steady again

The company did not specify what its plate price was. It has officially kept prices flat since cutting them by $125 per short ton (st) on July 1.

SMU’s average price has fallen more than that. Our plate price now stands at $920/st on average as of Tuesday, down $200/st from $1,120/st in early July.

Some major domestic mills are offering plate prices as low as ~$860-880/st. And smaller regional players might be in the low $800s per ton, or not much higher than imports on a landed basis, market participants said.

Some also questioned Nucor’s plate price announcements. They cited the discrepancy between prices being officially flat even as tags have steadily eroded in the physical market.

SMU’s plate price is at its lowest point since $880/st in early January 2021, according to our pricing archives. They are also down nearly 53% from an all-time high of $1,940/st reached in the spring of 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the winter.

The war led to panic over pig iron supplies and the destruction of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, previously an important supplier of plate and of slab to international markets – including the US.