Although US steel mills have waited to enter the scrap market in recent months, sources tell SteelOrbis that mills were active early on this week, with some completing purchase commitments by mid-week. The export scrap market also provided support to the domestic scrap market through the week as several ex-US deals were heard at the equivalent of $279-280/mt CFR Turkey on shredded scrap. Throughout the week, sources were consistently optimistic, predicting a strong sideways trend with the potential for some deals to increase $5-15/mt depending on the grade.
While the potential for busheling and P&S grades to increase slightly were considered by some market players, the magnitude of the actual increases was higher than expected. On the East coast, busheling scrap increased $35/mt while P&S scrap increased $20-22/mt, both compared against April settled prices. The strong increase was attributed to tight supply and continued demand for prime grade scrap from mills with value-added or unique product lines. A source noted that while P&S is itself not a prime grade, some buyers increased their P&S mix in light of the tight prime grade market.
Shredded scrap remained sideways while HMS I increased $5/mt from the bottom of the previous page.
The East Coast domestic scrap market settled as follows:
| (delivered to customer) | May | April | Change*(in mt terms) |
| HMS I | $249-254/mt $245-250/gt | $244-254/mt $240-250/gt | +$5/mt No change |
| Shredded | $284-290/mt $280-285/gt | $284-290/mt $280-285/gt | No change No change |
| Busheling | $375-386/mt $370-380/gt | $340-351/mt $335-345/gt | +$35/mt +$35/mt |
| P&S | $274-279/mt $270-275/gt | $254-257/mt $250-253/gt | +$20/mt +$22/mt |
*Top number denotes change from the bottom of the previous range and bottom number denotes change from the top of the previous range.