Scrap Prices North America
Detroit-area scrap buyer offering up $30-50/gt for December
Written by Michael Cowden
December 6, 2023
A large Detroit-area scrap buyer entered the market on Wednesday offering to pay significantly higher prices than a month earlier.
The company offered busheling and shredded scrap up $50 per gross ton from November. Plate and structural were offered up $30 per gross ton from last month.
Recall that Detroit settled higher in November.
The Detroit-area offers are important because they often set the tone for scrap prices nationwide.
What they’re saying
Scrap market participants predicted in late November that December would settle higher.
There was a similar consensus among SMU survey respondents, approximately two-thirds of whom said scrap would move higher this month. (Editor’s note: Full results of SMU’s steel market survey will be released on Friday to data providers and to our premium members.)
Here is what some of those survey respondents had to say:
“Short supply of low residual scrap coupled with the tight pig iron situation. New capacity demand will keep this tight.”
“Sounds like the market is expecting up in December and in January.”
“Business starting off (2024) will be strong.”
“Normal winter flows.”
“The price of scrap going up will also enable prices to go up on finished product.”
SMU will update its scrap price ranges once markets have settled.
Michael Cowden
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