Scrap market sources throughout the US said that the market thus far has been quiet. As of 2pm on Thursday, September 7, mills have yet to announce September pricing.
For the past 24 hours, rumors have been swirling that mills might try to take busheling prices down by roughly $20/gt to narrow the spread between busheling and shredded, although 100% of sellers polled said they’d firmly push back. Rumors that mills may also try to take other grades down have also been rumbling through the marketplace.
Finished steel prices are still soft, one source said, noting that service centers across the country have been reluctant to replenish their warehouses due to uncertain market conditions. This, he said, may be part of what’s driving chatter of downward pressure on scrap prices.
“I didn’t think there was any way we’d be looking at the potential of lower prices in September but here we are,” a source said. “The idea that anything would come down this month just doesn’t compute. I never thought I’d know so many sellers who would be excited to sell at sideways.”
Others, however, have pointed out that everything is just speculation at this point, and believe that the market could hold at sideways. “Yes there’s less scrap coming in, but there are a lot of planned maintenance outages that are coming up so this month could very well be a wash.”
A final source also agreed that all market chatter at this point “is nothing more than rumors running wild.”
“I think what's happening is that sellers are starting to get nervous because the mills haven't come out yet, "he said. "The only thing that any of us know for sure is that the mills are going to announce something tomorrow, so we’ll all just have to sit tight and stay tuned until that happens.”
Mills are expected to come out with pricing by end of business on Friday, September 8th. Settled prices are not expected to emerge until early next week.