A UK mill settled its May-delivery ferrous scrap contracts early this month, passing on a £10 ($16) month-on-month reduction to merchants after dock prices fell last week, market participants said.

The mill purchased OA at £260-265 per tonne delivered, while it paid £195-200 per tonne delivered for 7B turnings and around £265-270 per tonne delivered for shredded material, according to merchants.

This is down from Metal Bulletin’s overall UK ferrous scrap assessment for both buying mills in April at £262-275 delivered for OA and £200-210 delivered for 7B turnings.

As inter-merchant dock prices fell by £10 on most grades, many merchants were happy to accept the reductions.

“They came out at £10 off for all grades and we accepted,” a merchant said.

“It was simpler this time around than it has been,” a second merchant said, adding that the second mill had not approached him yet with a buying price.

“We were finished very quickly this month. Domestic internal prices dropped by £10 and we reflected that,” a mill source said. “This was on the container issue and a weakness in export prices.”

Merchants were expecting the second buying mill to complete negotiations by the end of next week.

“[They] might find it hard for a blanket £10 [cut] across the board as they lowered some prices [for April],” a third merchant said.

Daniel Gleeson
dgleeson@metalbulletin.com
Twitter: @dangleeson_mb