Steel Products
U.S. Scrap Prices “Sloppy” as Mills Buy at Lower Levels
Written by Diana Packard
August 4, 2013
One of our scrap sources – a Northeast based shredding company – reported sales to one of the mill scrap brokerage companies with two sales on shredded scrap. One 35,000 ton lot at down $20 per gross ton shipping by rail, a second lot of shred sold down $15 per gross ton to ship by truck. The shredding company also reported a 10,000 ton sale to a southern mill down $10 per gross ton. Busheling was referenced as going sideways and cut grades were down $5 per gross ton. The shredder told SMU, “Market kept getting weaker with each sale.”
Another of our east coast sources provided the following insights from his perspective late last week:
“The market is still developing, but it’s sloppier than most people thought it would be. Dealers are selling into the down market and the mills which are buying are lowering prices. Do we get to down $20 on shred? We might – we are not far from that with deals already at down $15 for shred and tons still not placed. From what I see, this is largely driven by mills which are just not buying much scrap either because they bought a lot in July or are taking maintenance outages in August. I was told there was an overhang of shred from July but that doesn’t make much sense – why would the market have gone so much higher? And we are seeing (and have been seeing for some time) a very tight shred feedstock and cut grade market, and an improving export market.
All in all a complex market – not very transparent at all.”
We should see more scrap deals concluded early this week. The expectation has been for shred to be down $5-$15 per gross ton depending on the market with cut and prime grades moving sideways (remaining the same as July). SMU will have more details as the week progresses and more information becomes available.
Diana Packard
Read more from Diana PackardLatest in Steel Products

SMU Community Chat replay now available
The latest SMU Community Chat webinar reply is now available on our website to all members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the community tab and look under the “previous webinars” section of the dropdown menu. All past Community Chat webinars are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the webinar replay, or if your company […]

SSAB announces $74M expansion in Alabama
The project will expand heat treat capacity at its Axis, Alabama plant

Service centers: Mill orders retreat in March
SMU’s Mill Order Index declined in March after repeated gains at the start of the year, according to our latest service center inventories data.

Nucor maintains plate prices
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat with the opening of its June order book.

US rig count up, Canada declines
Oil and gas drilling activity was mixed this week, according to Baker Hughes. US rig counts expanded for a second straight week, while Canadian activity continued its seasonal slowdown of eight consecutive weeks.