US domestic scrap prices settle up in March

After registering a price dip in February following three consecutive months of upward movement, US domestic scrap prices in March returned and in some cases surpassed January settled prices. 

 

“By all accounts the broad steel market is quite strong across all steel sectors: flat roll, SBQ and energy,” according to a source close to SteelOrbis.

 

Sources in the East coast say deals further West were concluded for shredded scrap at $345-351/mt (340-345/gt) and busheling scrap at $396-406/mt ($390-400/gt) during the early part of the buy-cycle, all prices delivered to regional mill.  Then shredded scrap collapsed to $335-340/mt (330-335/gt) and busheling scrap to $386-391/mt ($380-385/gt) delivered to regional mill. Busheling dropped down slightly in some negotiations while shredded fell an additional $10-15/mt ($10-15/gt). The reason behind the collapse, according to sources, was “docks dumping ferrous scrap into the market to cool it off because export is not as strong and docks did not want domestic shippers to have such a big advantage over export.” Demand is still strong, sources say, and many do not foresee a downside for April.

 

The surprise in the March buy-cycle was the high demand and resulting high prices for prime scrap. Even as the market settles at the prices in the table below, a source noted, “Primes are quite marketable still and could garner a premium for those with any quantities available.”

 

March settled prices are as follows:

 

March 6 (delivered to mill)	East coast	Pennsylvania	Northeast Ohio	Southwest Ohio
HMS I	$278-280/mt $274-276/gt	$300-305/mt $295-300/gt	$305/mt $300/gt	$305/mt $300/gt
Shredded	$315-320/mt $310-315/gt	$325-330/mt $320-325/gt	$325-330/mt $320-325/gt	$330/mt $325/gt
Busheling	$345-356/mt $340-350/gt	$376-386/mt $370-380/gt	$396/mt $390/gt	$391-396/mt $385-390/gt
P&S	$289-291/mt $284-286/gt	$320-325/mt $315-320/gt	$315-330/mt $310-325/gt	$325-330/mt $320-325/gt
Bundles				$376-386/mt $370-380/gt

 

Change m-on-m	East coast	Pennsylvania	Northeast Ohio*	Southwest Ohio*
HMS I	+$44/mt +$39/mt	+$36/mt +31/mt	+$41/mt +$36/mt	+$41/mt +$36/mt
Shredded	+$46/mt	+$41/mt +$40/mt	+$41/mt +$35/mt	+$46/mt +$40/mt
Busheling	+$65/mt +$56/mt	+$56/mt +$59/mt	+$81/mt +$71/mt	+$76/mt +$71/mt
P&S	+$40/mt +$37/mt	+$41/mt	+$36/mt +$46/mt	+$46/mt
Bundles				Not reported in Feb

Note:  mt variance noted in relation to change from previous range. When two numbers are present, the top number denotes change from the bottom of the previous range and the bottom number denotes the change from the top of the previous range.
(*) SteelOrbis reported Ohio Valley settled numbers for February. The comparison is against Ohio Valley data in February as 2 regions are documented for Ohio in the March table above.