Scrap Prices North America

March ferrous scrap market: Trends and turmoil

Written by Phil Hoffman

March 11, 2024

As I see it, the market looked to be a perfect storm for consumers this month while two large steel mills tried to put a floor on hot-rolled coil (HRC). One source speculated that “flat rolled mills coordinated their downtime and will take out 250,000 tons of capacity in April,” which made them attempt to put a bottom on flat-rolled product.

In the Rocky Mountain region, it turns out the mill that significantly reduced their scrap buying program in February did come back into the market in March, albeit at about 50% of their normal program. They intend to return to their full purchase program in April, which may help put a floor on the Texas/Gulf region for the month.

However, that didn’t stop the Texas/Gulf markets from coming down significantly in line with the rest of the US in March. Several sources confirmed local Texas mills were down on HMS, shred/plate and structurals (PNS) and busheling– $40, $50 and $60, respectively– making HMS at $360-365 per gross ton (gt), shred/PNS at $390-395/gt, and busheling at $390-400/gt. One mill does have to pay $410-415 for busheling as they are a relatively long way from the Houston area.

On a related note, one bulk sale to Turkey did come out of Texas at $376 for HMS and $396 for bonus/PNS, which seems to be the lowest U.S. bulk sale to date. Houston dock prices moved accordingly and seem to be at the $290 level for HMS.

On the US West Coast one major Taiwanese mill was confirmed to bid $348 CFR for containerized HMS but no deals were executed at that price. West Coast suppliers are getting offers at $340-345 FAS, which is $352-357 CFR. Vietnam is still waiting because of lowered billet and longs prices in Vietnam due to slack demand and Chinese imports. However, the Vietnamese government did institute a stimulus package that could boost steel demand as early as April. In addition, the Yen stands at 147 to $1 on Monday, which seems to be stable. Given the resistance to $348 and the value of the Yen, we could also be looking at a bottom for exporters to Asia.

Phil Hoffman

Phil Hoffman has been in operations, logistics and trading ferrous scrap globally for more than 30 years. Hoffman Iron has also consulted for numerous steel mills, where he has enhanced steel mill scrap and raw material operations by successfully reducing raw material costs while increasing yields. Hoffman is in addition an attorney specializing in international trade and maritime law.

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