During Tuesday's quarterly conference call, Chairman and CEO of Commercial Metals Company (CMC), Murray R. McClean, commented on the scrap trend going forward. McClean said that ferrous scrap prices for July are trending sideways to slightly up, and it may be August before scrap prices begin to retreat.
For the most part, scrap flow is firm in the US market according to McClean, even with some constraints caused by flooding in the US Midwest. McClean said that the Turkish domestic scrap market is strong, due to higher finished product demand. Egypt is buying rebar again, and activity has resumed in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. However, the uptrend is not sustainable and prices/demand will come down in the "next month or two as Ramadan nears."
The Americas Recycling segment of CMC's operations was steady during fiscal Q3 2011 (ended May 31, 2011). CMC said that ferrous scrap pricing stayed stable during the quarter, but was higher than last year's Q3 on consistent domestic mill demand. Export demand fell however, due to instability in the Middle East. The average ferrous scrap sales prices in fiscal Q3 were $354/nt, a 16 percent increase year-on-year. Ferrous scrap shipments fell slightly to 557,000 nt, compared to 562,000 nt in Q3 2010.