Plate prices in the United States - currently at their lowest since November 2016 - have almost converged with hot-rolled coil due to weaker end markets for plate while sheet mills have been able to collect price increases during the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic-related slowdown.
As of Wednesday June 10, there is only a $1-per-hundredweight ($20-per-short-ton) differential between cut-to-length plate and hot-rolled coil - an abnormally narrow spread. Fifty-two weeks ago that spread was more than $11 per cwt ($220 per ton).Plate has suffered mostly because of the dramatic downturn in US oil and gas drilling, a plunge in demand for new rail cars and a slowdown in production of heavy equipment during the pandemic. Steel sheet has experienced an earlier rebound because of the restarts at North American auto plants, large-volume buys from welded structural tubing mills and a steadier recovery at coil-consuming fabricators and manufacturers. "Plate is getting hit more in demand," a West Coast distributor said. "It's the energy market and rail-car market. The flat-roll guys are getting more of their demand back with the resumption of automotive and the other manufacturing."Another contrast between the plate and coil mills has come on the...