Now that US market players have returned from the Thanksgiving holiday, scrap trading for this month’s buy cycle has initiated.
Sources close to SteelOrbis have confirmed that mid-to-late last week, domestic mills had some early offers to scrap yards, at up $15-$20/gt ($15-$20/mt) from November settled levels. However, the offers were largely ignored by scrap sellers, who were hoping to push for higher prices.
As of today, it’s been confirmed that scrap in the Ohio Valley and Detroit is trading at up $30/gt ($30/mt).
Sellers in other parts of the US, however, say they have yet to enter the market, and are expecting to sell at up $20/gt ($20/mt) from November settled levels.
The big question is whether last week’s East coast export cargo transaction to Turkey, which reflected a $12/mt increase from the previous transaction, will impact East coast scrap prices this month. That question has yet to be answered.
US scrap prices are not expected to fully settle until later in the week.