Futures
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Iron Ore and Scrap Futures: Busheling Higher – Ore Softens
Written by Bradley Clark
October 24, 2013
TSI Iron Ore: Market Soften As Rebar Slides
Iron ore prices have been fairly volatile over the past week as conflicting data and information coming out of China as moved the needle in opposite directions. The upshot to all of this intraday volatility is that prices remain fairly unchanged on a week-on-week basis. With rebar prices softening in China overnight iron ore has followed suit down to close about 1.3 percent down from yesterday’s close. The Q1 still is trading around $124 and Q2 $118 and Q3 at $115. Volumes remain very strong with millions of tons trading this week.
U.S. Midwest #1 Busheling Ferrous Scrap (AMM) Prices Rocket Up
The busheling futures market has shot up this week as it is becoming more evident that Midwest prime will be up $30-40 this month. After settling at $385 per ton the November and December futures contracts have been bid as high as $420 in the market as traders look to lock in prices before next month’s jump in pricing. While volumes remain low, the talk of a big move in the physical market has brought out several new market participants looking to trade the busheling futures contract. Hopefully a continued increase in volatility will help to spark more trading on this contract as it moves past its first year anniversary.
Again, there have been no reported trades this past week.
Bradley Clark
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HR futures: Shifting risk profiles, emerging opportunities
Summer is here, and a familiar sentiment has hit the hot-rolled coil (HRC) futures market. Prices continue to decline in both the spot market and the futures market, with expectations of sub-$800 prices for the remainder of the year.
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HR futures complex slips from June
The CME steel futures complex saw a slight decrease in activity from levels seen at the end of June. This has coincided with a notable decline in flat prices for the nearby futures contract, now August HRC, which is lower by $81 per short ton (st) since last writing on June 13. It settled at $672/st on July 17.
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HR futures: Bottom to prices?
A month ago, when we last presented this column, there was a surprising amount of optimism in the presumably imminent reversal of the downtrend in hot-rolled steel prices in the second half of this year.
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/HRC-Futures.png)
HR futures: ‘Gimme Shelter’
This chart of the rolling second-month CME hot-rolled coil (HRC) future dating back to the start of 2022 has been as volatile as a herd of “Wild Horses.”
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HR futures: Market changes gears
For the first time in weeks, activity in the futures market broke out of the recent “front grinds lower” pattern to provide new insight into the dynamics of the steel industry.