August scrap prices mostly sideways in Great Lakes region

The US ferrous scrap market has essentially traded sideways for August. It may be too early to judge how much traction these prices will have with the trade. There was disagreement over sideways pricing in certain districts as dealers sought an increase of $20/gross ton (gt) on prime grades and $10/gt on shredded and other obsolescent grades.

However, with demand for finished steel languishing, especially for hot-rolled coil, mills collectively stuck with sideways pricing, and scrap settled at this level. A handful of mills did initially raise prices on No. 1 Busheling but quickly adjusted once they saw others were sideways. Most buyers felt that, with melt rates declining and with some mills staying out of the market or buying very little, they could buy their necessary tonnages without any increase in prices, even if some suppliers resisted. There were reports of some upward movement on No. 1 HMS in the Great Lakes region since this grade had been woefully underpriced for the last few months.

Stephen Miller

Stephen Miller started his career in the scrap metal industry in 1978 at Luria Brothers in Cleveland. Over the last 40-plus 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.