Northern buyers enter April scrap market sideways

Mills spanning several districts in the Great Lakes area all bought sideways, despite indications that not all of them had full programs.

There had been debate about whether the market was going to settle at “soft” or “strong” sideways toward the end of March. After considering the mill cutbacks and outages for April, the northern buys arguably represent a ‘strong’ sideways move.

Strengthening export activity did play a small role as some Northeast markets went up slightly for obsolescent export grades. Other districts in the West and South will most likely fill in at sideway prices as well. At this point, they would have a hard time paying any less.