August US settled scrap prices did not emerge until Monday of this week, and because of that, sources believe that it will still be a few more days before a clearer picture of the September marketplace appears.
“I don’t have any thoughts to share as of yet, but I expect we’ll all have more information next week,” a source said.
A second source said that while he’s started to hear some preliminary chatter, that the opinions he’s received “are without confidence.”
“The opinions I’m hearing so far are mixed,” he added. “Domestically there will be several outages among some large electric furnace shops in the Midwest that will hamper demand, but supplies of obsolete are relatively tight. Export will probably waiver in the $395-400/mt CFR range to Turkey for 80/20 for the foreseeable future. Don’t have any feel for prime. If I had to call it today, I would say sideways on all grades.”
Another source agreed with sideways, adding that he too, is hearing mixed reviews of where the market is heading.
A final source said he thinks that sideways to up $20/gt could be in the cards.
“There is no scrap moving as flows into the yards are very slow,” he said. “My guess right now would be sideways to up $20.”
Additional clarity about September is expected to come next week.