At the end of November, in negotiations for scrap purchase prices in the local German scrap market, most mills have decided to keep their prices unchanged or to apply slight upward corrections to be in line with market levels.
In the northern part of the country, plants have generally raised scrap purchase prices by €5-10/mt also under the effect of rising bids coming from scrap export yards, which have now settled at around €255-260/mt DAP for HMS I/II 80:20. In eastern, western and southwestern Germany, instead, scrap purchase prices from mills have remained at unchanged levels. However, one plant in the east, one plant in the Saar region and one plant in the south have increased their scrap purchase prices by €10/mt, €15/mt and €10/mt, respectively, with the aim of creating a homogeneous market in terms of prices.
Except for northern Germany, where the reasons for the price increases were different, SteelOrbis believes that these upward price adjustments have been implemented in order to go back to current market levels, as local German scrap prices had suffered significant drops in October amid extremely low scrap demand from mills.
A scrap dealer in Germany has reported that his customers have bought scrap at €5-7/mt higher in November compared to October, and that the market has remained “overall unchanged with some slight upticks”. Scrap demand has remained regular but slow, and logistics continue to be an issue. “Sales are also slowing down as we are approaching the end of the year,” he said.