Oct. ferrous scrap mart tilts onto slippery slope

Oct 05, 2007 | 04:11 PM | Michael Marley

Prices paid for dealer grades of ferrous scrap started the month on a level playing field but were tilting downward as the week progressed.

Much of the weakness appeared in the Midwest. Prices paid in the Chicago market were down across the board, with industrial scrap grades like bundles and busheling dipping by as much as $10 a long ton and cut grades like No. 1 heavy melt off by $5 a ton.

A trader in Chicago said shredded scrap prices—steady to off a few dollars—were probably the strongest because many shredders are short feedstock and facing resistance to their efforts to cut their buying prices for junked cars.

Industry sources said lower scrap inventories at mills in the Southeast and in the Pittsburgh region and unchanged prices for auto bundles drove buying early in the first week of October. But as the days passed, brokers and mill buyers said they were being swamped with offers of industrial steel scrap like No. 1 busheling. Dealers and processors were willing to take less money for that material, even for large-tonnage orders.....