Scrap Processors
August 6, 2024
Buy week alert: Ferrous scrap prices poised for August gains
Written by Stephen Miller
It’s buy week again for ferrous scrap. The U.S. 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 on the part of the scrap buyers. Most scrap programs at major mills are no better than in July. However, there is enough demand where 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 by the demand for finished steel. Demand has been down this year and so have prices for ferrous scrap.
