JPM Steel | Daily Despatch Asian spreads +1%; USMCA not renewed; HRC lead times extend

Research evidence excerpt

JPM Steel | Daily Despatch Asian spreads +1%; USMCA not renewed; HRC lead times extend

ortium confirmed to Platts in April that the pilot plant will now start in 2029. Source: Platts

• Plate market conditions continue to bolster prices: Limited spot product and extended lead times continue to characterize

the domestic plate market, prolonging upward price pressure. Some market participants told SMU that unless they had access

to imported plate, tracking down spot product remained a challenge. The scarcity of spot plate for purchase from mills has

resulted in increased collaboration with other service centers or distributors. However, they say they’re paying a premium in

these transactions. Source: SMU

• Cleveland-Cliffs wins $400m defense logistics agency contract for electrical steel: Cleveland-Cliffs won a contract worth

up to $400m from the US Defense Logistics Agency for grain oriented electrical steel. The 5-year contract has no option

periods and carries a performance completion date of Sept. 8, 2030, the Department of Defense said Wednesday. The steel will

be used by the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.

• Near zero-cost memory expansion through recycling: Meta will reuse terabytes worth of DDR4 memory using CXL

tech and avoid paying RAM tax: Memory shortages, rising DRAM prices, and extended delivery schedules have pushed

hyperscalers toward alternatives that seemed impractical only recently, but Meta has developed a way to reuse old DDR4

memory pulled from decommissioned servers rather than discarding it. The approach allows companies to expand server

memory capacity without purchasing new DRAM, a cost researchers describe as the so-called RAM tax. Source: TechRadar