US ferrous scrap market lands flat in July

SMU spoke to a trader in the Central region who quipped, “Maybe we should not have a market anymore. They (the mills or mill-owned brokers) should just tell us what it is.”

He added he votes sideways for August.

One of our sources in the South confirmed the ease and speed at which the monthly settlements occurred. He also expressed surprise the mills settled before the holiday. 

Steelmakers in this region bought their normal amount of material. There was very little or no purchases on the part of the new capacity mills, which are still ramping up.

Asked what he thought at this stage about August price tags, he said: “More of the same.” 

On the increased steel tariffs, our source thought the effect they are having is to keep more imported hot-rolled (HR) coil from coming in. This has kept the melt rate of the flat-roll mills stable in a moderately weakening manufacturing economy.