Slip, sliding away. Brokers in the Midwest say a lot of prime scrap went “homeless” last month and some dealers are already offering large tonnages for whatever price they can get.
Prices offered for ferrous scrap at the docks have continued their freefall this week and are spawning more bearish sentiment in the domestic market as scrap buyers and suppliers head into the Labor Day weekend.
European ferrous scrap export prices are declining “rapidly,” with buyers holding all the power to dictate price levels, market sources said.
What started as a summer slowdown in hot band prices has turned into a full-blown slide, with global prices down anywhere from $30 to $71 per tonne in the past two weeks, according to the latest report from SteelBenchmarker.
Rio Tinto Alcan has reached a labor deal with trade unions in British Columbia that will enable it to modernize its Kitimat aluminum smelter, the company’s president and chief executive officer, Richard Evans, told AMM Wednesday.
Boeing Co. and its largest union are going down to the wire in negotiating a new labor agreement, and some suppliers are concerned about the possibility of a walkout lasting for more than a couple of weeks.
U.S. Steel Corp. plans to hike base prices on oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and seamless standard and line pipe by $200 per ton ($10 per hundredweight) in October.
| Cut structural/plat | -57.14% |
| No. 2 bundles | -43.60% |
| No. 2 heavy melt | -34.56% |
| No. 1 heavy melt | -32.83% |
| Shredded auto scrap | -29.41% |
| Unstripped motor | -22.50% |
| Auto bodies | -13.51% |
| SILVER - Comex | -0.77% |
| Steel Billet- LME:AM | -0.65% |
| Steel Billet-LME:AM | -0.64% |
September 15 - 17, 2008
Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre
Cleveland, OH
October 15 - 17, 2008
Westin Convention Center Hotel
Pittsburgh, PA
October 28 - 30, 2008
Marriott Detroit at the Renaissance Center
Detroit, MI
Domestic demand for ferrous scrap, pig iron and hot-briquetted iron is not weakening, but the steep price increases may have ended, or at least paused for a while. Mill buyers seem to be taking over the reins that some saw as a runaway market in the second quarter and have pulled back their prices for both No. 1 heavy melt and shredded.
Live News
Monthly Magazine
