In the Detroit market this month, prime industrial steel scrap grades like No. 1 bundles and No. 1 busheling are down about $45 a long ton, turnings and cast iron borings are down by $40 a ton and cut scrap like No. 1 heavy melt and 5-foot plate and structural scrap are off about $30 a ton. The AMM Consumer Buying Prices reflect only a $15-a-ton decrease in shredded scrap and $30-a-ton reduction in clean auto cast and drop broken machinery cast.
Pricing for these alloys has been tracked on the basis of cost-plus formulas rather than from information provided by buyers and sellers. Recent volatility in raw material prices has meant that the formulas AMM traditionally uses to calculate the alloy prices now risk providing numbers that are out of line with current market conditions.
Reliable non-contact transaction prices are hard to come by in current market conditions. If trading becomes more robust, AMM will look at relisting prices for these alloys using information obtained directly from buyers and sellers.
Readers’ comments should be sent to newsroom@amm.com by the Dec. 8 deadline.
As indicated in an earlier notice, AMM has adjusted certain ferrous scrap prices in Detroit, New York, Hamilton and Montreal in order to bring these prices more in line with the mill-delivered prices in those regions.
These adjustments are being made effective Dec. 9. The new prices appear in the respective tables for these cities on the AMM Scrap Iron & Steel Prices page.
The table below lists the adjustment in dollars for each of these grades in the four cities from the previously published prices. These changes do not reflect any upward or downward movement in actual market prices in December in these cities with one exception: Hamilton, Ontario. In the Hamilton market this month, prices for No. 1 dealer bundles, No. 1 busheling, shredded scrap and both machine shop and shoveling turnings were reduced by an average of Canadian $5 a net ton. Those reductions have been factored into the new prices for these grades as well as the adjustments listed below for the Hamilton market.
The last similar adjustments in AMM pricing were made for the Detroit market 18 months ago. In Hamilton and Montreal, a more sweeping revision was done in January 2001 when AMM began reporting consumer or mill-delivered prices for the two Canadian cities. Broker buying prices had previously been reported for those cities.
(under Consumer Buying Prices)
(under Brokers Buying Prices)
(under Consumer Buying Prices)
(under Consumer Buying Prices)
(under Consumer Buying Prices)
At the end of November 2002, AMM discontinued two copper prices that appeared on the daily Market Guide page and in the Market Prices box: Electrolytic wirebar and AMM cathode.
Both numbers were replaced with a new AMM free-market copper cathode price, which will reflect the Comex settlement price and a premium indicator for high-grade material.
In January 2002, AMM discontinued publishing a number of prices that were unchanged for unusually long periods. In addition, AMM altered selected price tables to more accurately reflect market conditions.
The following prices and/or tables were affected: