There is no joy in Mudville in the middle of March, the scrap market is dead and no mills are looking to add to their inventories. For that matter the dealers have very little to offer as the weather has yet to clear up north and the big move lower in scrap prices in February […] The post Ferrous Scrap Prices Poised to Move Sideways as we Get into April Negotiations? appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Last week a number of the large Chinese steel mills who have offices in the United States met to discuss the pressures being placed on the Chinese mills by both the Chinese central government and the U.S. government to control (reduce) the amount of steel being exported to the United States. SMU heard over the […] The post Final Thoughts appeared first on Steel Market Update.
The following article about the Asian ferrous scrap markets comes to SMU from Damon Sun of Daido International: After the Lunar New Year holidays in Asia, the finished steel market has been subdued. However the scrap markets have stabilized. The raw factors affecting scrap markets: Negative Issue Affecting Ferrous Scrap in Asia: 1.) Iron ore […] The post Asian Scrap Markets Stabilize appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel prices continued their slide this week. The CRU was down $14 to $488/ton, which has put downward pressure on futures contracts for nearby months. April and May are trading approximately $10 lower this week with the former at $495/ton and the latter closer to $510/ton. While nearby months have been influenced by the deteriorating […] The post Hot Rolled Futures: Another Step Down for HRC Prices appeared first on Steel Market Update.
SMU had the opportunity to attend the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) meeting in Pittsburgh on March 5. The meeting was held at the delightfully decorated Hotel Monaco in downtown Pittsburgh. ASD president Brian Robbins welcomed the younger than usual attendees to the ASD meeting and invited them to become part of the Future Leaders […] The post ASD Meeting Focuses on Scrap & Steel Pricing appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Warning: You can drown reaching for the bottom…! Steel Market Update (SMU) is learning that the ferrous scrap deals which were done earlier this week in Detroit and in northern Ohio were done at sideways pricing on obsolete grades (such as heavy melt and shredded scrap) while primes grades (Busheling/bundles) dropped $20 per ton. However, […] The post Early Reports Have Obsolete Scrap Sideways While Primes Down $20 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
In the twelve months of 2014, ferrous scrap exports totaled 15,308,000 tonnes (metric tons), down by 17.1 percent from the same period in 2013. In the single month of December scrap exports were 1,056,570 tonnes, down 21.5 percent from November. Figure 1 shows that the three month moving average (3MMA) has been declining slightly for […] The post US Steel Scrap Exports Drop 17.1% During 2014 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
As we reported last week, prior to negotiations beginning for the month of February market players were predicting ferrous scrap prices would drop by $30-$50 and then $50-$70 per gross ton. Then we heard prices would drop by $100 per gross ton over the months of February and March combined. When the smoke cleared at […] The post Ferrous Scrap Pricing Drops $80 to $110 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
The domestic steel mills and their ferrous scrap suppliers traditionally negotiate pricing on scrap to be delivered during the first few days of the new month. This means the mills and their suppliers are deep into negotiations regarding February scrap purchases right now. Last week the word amongst the “scrappies,” as well as their mill […] The post Ferrous Scrap in Free Fall? appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update thought it might be worthwhile to pick out some of the comments made by Steel Dynamics CEO Mark Millett during his earnings conference call with analysts late last week. We have focused on comments made about foreign steel, scrap, energy markets and the new Columbus facility. Each of the comments made are […] The post Steel Dynamics CEO Talks Imports, Scrap, Columbus and Energy Markets appeared first on Steel Market Update.