Ferrous Scrap

Ferrous scrap prices poised for August gains

Written by Stephen Miller

August 7, 2024

It’s buy week again for ferrous scrap. US steelmakers are expected to offer their prices for August shipment this week. Most of the dealers and brokers RMU has quizzed believe the market has enough traction to hold sideways and even go up. Prime scrap seems to be the most likely to gain in August as it was a bit short last month when some mills attempted to buy down from June and met resistance. They eventually had to raise their prices.

On the obsolescent side, many think shredded and P&S can also achieve a raise. However, when RMU contacted several large companies with multiple shredders, they indicated their inbound flow of shredder feed had not decreased to any appreciable extent. This may be able to limit the market on shredded to sideways from July. So, at this point, it is a toss-up.

On the demand side, there still is no evidence of increased demand from scrap buyers. Most scrap programs at major mills are no better than in July. However, there is enough demand that steel mills will want to keep scrap flows intact. RMU has not spoken to anyone on either side of the metallic aisle who thinks scrap prices will be down.

As always, scrap prices are reliant mainly on demand for finished steel. Demand has been down this year, and so have prices for ferrous scrap.

Stephen Miller

Stephen Miller started his career in the scrap metal industry in 1978 at Luria Brothers in Cleveland. Over the last 40+ years, he has worked in all capacities in the trading business. He has had positions in both domestic and international scrap trading. In addition to scrap, Miller was at the forefront of the pig iron trade and established a pig iron distribution company under the name of Ferrosource, Inc. Most recently, Miller has concentrated on the scrap export market and regularly does consulting for several companies in the industry.

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