Plate prices remain flat in what to date has been an unusually listless spring market, market participants said.
Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for cut-to-length plate was unchanged at $46 per hundredweight ($920 per short ton) on Friday April 5 for the second week in a row.After dropping in the first quarter, plate prices now stand exactly where they were a year ago.Mills might say that lead times are out as far as six to eight weeks, but the actual figure is more like four to six weeks, buyer sources said."I think the mills are maybe padding it a little and then rolling it quicker," one East Coast service center source said of lead times.Spring rebound: Where is it?Plate prices typically rise in the first...