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    October 17, 2019

    CRU: Weak Steel Demand and Mill Outages Keep Scrap Demand Low

    By CRU Principal Analyst Chris Asgill

    Weak steel markets have continued to drive down scrap prices in many regions. In the key supply markets of Europe and the U.S., mills have taken outages as demand has failed to recover seasonally. Meanwhile in Japan, weak steel demand and high steel inventories have continued to limit steel production. Although inflows of scrap in these markets have slowed due to the weak pricing environment of recent months, this was not sufficient to offset the drop in demand during the October buy period. This has been compounded by the weakness in the key scrap importing markets of Turkey and Asia.

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    Mills seek more scrap after lower prices fail to attract tons

    Several mills that bought October scrap early last week are still asking for additional supplies, scrap market participants said. The reason: the mills' initial prices did not attract enough of the raw material, they said. A trading source based in northern Ohio said three mills have contacted his firm seeking offers for additional tons. He said the mills asked for offers even if prices were higher than their original buys last week.

    Nucor increases spot HR to $1,240/ton

    Nucor said on Monday, Oct. 12, that its consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil will be $1,240 per short ton (st) this week, a $10/st increase from a week earlier. The CSP for HR coil from California Steel Industries (CSI) on the West Coast will be $1,305/st, up $15/st from the prior week. Nucor is still offering lead times of three to five weeks, according to the letter to customers. You can track mill price announcements on our website. Steel Market Update (SMU) published a weekly price assessment on Tuesday, Oct. 6, showing HR coil prices averaging $1,270/st, up $10/st from the previous week. We will update our prices on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 13.