US scrap prices for the month of December settled sideways to down in the Ohio Valley and lower overall across the US Northeast region this week as new scrap demand from mills was reported to be minimal, scrap market insiders told SteelOrbis this week following the completion of the December buy cycle.
Although the beginning of December scrap negotiations saw the weekly pricing consensus emerge at sideways to November, once mills began talks for their limited December requirements, lower pricing was quickly in order.
Market insiders reported Midwest mills initially sought $10-$20/gt ($10-20/mt) discounts for December, even as suppliers did their best to hold their ground, despite continuing reports of weak mill order books coming into the new month.
“Shredders are only going down $5/gt ($5/mt) for the scrap feed, but mills are wanting to buy frag and shred at down $10-$20/gt which means that shredders’ margins are shrinking as they can’t follow the down $10-20/gt and maintain volumes,” said one Midwest scrap insider. “This is an indicator that the market should not be down as much as the mills are trying to take it.”
Ultimately, the Ohio Valley settled for December sideways to $10/gt ($10/mt) less, SteelOrbis data shows, with HMS 1 settled down $10/gt at $320-340/gt ($325-345/mt) delivered to customer, shredded scrap was off $10/gt to $375-380/gt ($381-386/mt) on a delivered basis, while P&S settled $10/gt lower at $366-$376/gt ($372-382/mt) delivered to customer. Busheling settled sideways to November at $390-415/gt ($396-422/mt) delivered to customer.
In the US Northeast, pricing was off across the board, though declines were less severe owing to scrap export opportunity, insiders said. HMS settled down just $2/gt from November settles at $335-350/gt ($340-356/mt) delivered to customer, while shredded saw pricing down $5/gt to $365-375/gt ($371-381/mt) delivered. P&S action was settled $5/gt less at $335-345/gt ($340-351/mt) on a delivered basis, while busheling scrap was also off $5/gt to $390-410/gt ($395-417/mt) delivered to customer, market insiders told SteelOrbis.