US domestic scrap prices have settled in the East coast and Pennsylvania regions. As expected, scrap prices moved down as a result of falling export prices; concerns abounded last week about lower UK and Baltic deals by Turkish mills in comparison to the previous US deal and their potential effect in lowering ex-US prices further. Fortunately, the last few ex-US scrap deals this week actually moved prices higher from the $240/mt CFR for HMS I/II 80:20 and $245/mt CFR shredded benchmarks that were hovering over the East coast market.
According to an East coast contact, “While deals moved down as expected, the last US scrap export deals along with good demand from domestic mills, despite their tight inventory controls, are giving the market a positive sentiment. For example, those seeking shredded today will find numbers a couple of dollars higher than Monday numbers.” According to a separate source, “March is looking sideways as no one want to see a downward shift. Hopefully everything can be aligned to maintain Turkey at these prices. We are hearing some placements of finished goods by them, which is positive.”
Settled prices for February are as follows:
| Feb 7 (delivered to mill) | East coast | Pennsylvania |
| HMS I | $234-241/mt $230-237/gt | $264-274/mt $260-270/gt |
| Shredded | $269-274/mt $265-270/gt | $284-290/mt $280-285/gt |
| Busheling | $280-300/mt $275-295/gt | $320-327/mt $315-322/gt |
| P&S | $249-254/mt $245-250/gt | $279-284/mt $275-280/gt |
| Bundles* |
| $305-310/mt $300-305/gt |
*Not previously reported
Compared to the previous month (January 2017) when SteelOrbis reported the settled prices, changes are as follows:
| Change m-on-m | East coast | Pennsylvania |
| HMS I | -$40/mt -$38/mt | -$31/mt -$26/mt |
| Shredded | -$41/mt
| -$36/mt -$35/mt |
| Busheling | -$10/mt -$15/mt | -$10/mt -$8/mt |
| P&S | -$36/mt
| -$30/mt -$29/mt |
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.