There has been quite a bit of talk in the past several weeks in terms of where
US domestic
scrap prices will settle for October buys. In the middle part of the month, some felt that mill-maintenance outages could have brought the market down by $20-$40/lt depending on the region. But as the days moved on, SteelOrbis sources cited greater optimism, and while it’s certainly agreed that prices won’t firm next month, the downtrend may not be as significant as originally suspected; mills are likely to need more
scrap than initially anticipated. As it stands, prices in many of the regions are expected to trend down between $10-$15, “unless mills get cute and try to take things down $20/lt”, according to one
scrap-yard sources. Although the exact landscape won’t be clear until the end of the first week of October, previously seen East Coast / Philadelphia region prices, at $330-$340/lt for HMS I/II, $365-$370/lt for shredded
scrap and $390-$395/lt for busheling
scrap, and Ohio Valley (Pittsburgh/Cleveland) transaction ranges of $360-$370/lt for HMS I/II, $390-$400/lt for shredded
scrap and $420-$430/lt for busheling
scrap are expected to change.