Detroit enters February scrap market up $40/gt on prime, shredded

Recall that the tariff implementation received a commutation rather than a full pardon from President Trump over the weekend. 

Both Mexico and Canada offered up enough proactively on immigration and drug enforcement to earn a stay of execution. 

It is only 30 days, but most players do not think tariffs will rear their heads again that soon. It remains to be seen if 10% tariffs on China will be active for very long. 

The general question is whether an increase of $20/gt was enough to draw out the necessary tons in a scrap-short, underpriced, and logistically challenged mid-winter marketplace. 

There are several organizations predicting an increase of $30-50/gt. Meanwhile, a few steelmakers are saying they would rather cut back production than pay more than up $20 for steel scrap.   

Now that the initial bids have been offered, it will be interesting to see if these healthy price jumps permeate throughout the other steelmaking districts.