US plate pricing begins to rise

US plate pricing appears to be moving up in response to the latest round of mill increases, Kallanish hears from market sources.

Kallanish increased its plate assessment Monday to $820-840/short ton. All prices are ex-works, domestic mill.

Earlier this month, US plate producers announced a $40/st increase, echoing the three such increases announced by sheet producers.

“Plate has moved up between $20-40/st and seems to be sticking,” says one buy-side source. “With an increase of scrap prices, upcoming planned outages and low service centre inventories, another hike is on the way. It may happen this week.”