Although the average transaction range for US domestic CRC is still holding in the range of $35-$37 cwt. ($772-$816/mt or $700-$740/nt), ex-mill, with deals up to $1.00 cwt. ($22/mt or $20/nt) being available for certain buyers, market sources say they think a revision is coming.
“By all accounts, it looks as if scrap prices are going to fall off a cliff next month,” a source said. “With business slowing down, I don’t think anyone thinks that CRC prices are going to stay where they are.”
Earlier this month, figures released by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation showed that roughly 93% of US auto production had been taken offline in response to the coronavirus outbreak. However, now that production is resuming, demand for CRC is expected to experience a renewal.
Sources say that while this is a step in the right direction in terms of demand, they’re wary of making any bold predictions.
“There’s no guarantee of how many cars that Detroit is going to churn out, so it’s too soon to say how impactful the automakers coming back online is going to be,” a source said. “If you look at the job numbers, roughly 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment two weeks ago and another 6.6 million filed for unemployment last week. I’m guessing that there aren’t going to be a lot of people running out to buy cars anytime soon.”