All eyes this week will be on the scrap dealers and their steel mill customers as they haggle over where ferrous scrap prices will trade for the month of November. The opinion of many in the steel industry is that as scrap prices increase, it will both support the flat rolled steel price announcements already […] The post Ferrous Scrap Negotiations Point Toward Higher Steel Prices appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update has been working on developing new sources to complement some of our original sources out of China. The following information is part of a report we receive once per week from two steel trading companies located in Asia and actively involved with the Chinese steel industry. The first note is from one […] The post Chinese Domestic & Export Steel Pricing appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update scrap sources are advising us to expect ferrous scrap prices have bottomed and will increase once the November negotiations get underway next week with the domestic steel mills. We are hearing scrap prices should increase by a minimum of $10 per gross ton and some items could go up by as much […] The post November Scrap Prices Expected to Increase by $10-$30 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […] The post Are Flat Rolled Steel Prices Poised to Move Higher? appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update ferrous scrap sources advised us over the weekend that scrap negotiations have wrapped up between the dealers and the domestic mills and that steel mills, once again, have walked away the winners as scrap prices dropped across the country. However, the weakest areas are those furthest away from the east coast where […] The post Scrap Prices Drop for October: Are We Near a Bottom? appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Hot rolled coils settled September on the CME at $542 per ton while Platts ($539 average) and SMU ($530 average) saw market prices as being weaker. The SMU Price Momentum Index pointed toward lower prices throughout the month and ended the month suggesting prices will continue to slide as we move into the month of […] The post A Closer Look at September 2016 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Market sources are advising Steel Market Update to expect lower ferrous scrap prices in October. We are hearing the expectation by the dealers is for prices to drop anywhere from $15 to $40 per ton with most believing the adjustments will be in the $20 per ton range for obsolete grades and $30 per ton […] The post Ferrous Scrap Prices Poised to Drop in October appeared first on Steel Market Update.
This area of the Steel Market Update newsletter is reserved for me to be able to provide my thoughts/opinions on a variety of subjects and our readers clearly know where these comments are coming from. I have been asked on a number of occasions to comment on “rumors” of a domestic mill flat rolled price […] The post Final Thoughts appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Scrap prices surprised scrap dealers and have deteriorated more than what was expected going into September negotiations with the domestic steel mills. Here is how one of the national scrap companies portrayed the tone of the negotiations: “As you can imagine, it’s been a hectic time since the return from the holiday last week. As […] The post A Look at Midwest Scrap Pricing for September appeared first on Steel Market Update.
When speaking to one of the main ferrous scrap analysts in the industry our newsletter was paid a compliment when I asked if the scrap community was aware of our newsletter. I was told, “They do already. Many of them have a lot of confidence in your reports. They refer to it more often then […] The post Final Thoughts appeared first on Steel Market Update.