On January 5, sources close to SteelOrbis said they’d heard that David Joseph was testing prices at down $70/gt on shredded and down $50-$60/gt on everything else, however, many scrap players questioned whether prices would settle down by that large of a margin.
Today, however, after Delta came out at down $60/gt “across the board,” it now appears that down $60/gt, and perhaps by as much as down $70/gt (depending on the grade and region), is where prices are likely to land.
“The oracle of Delta has spoken,” a source said. “I’m not sure if that will fly everywhere, but we could see pricing come in right around their margins. On the other hand, the weather in many parts of the country has turned poor, so the mills will need to be careful about trying to get ‘too cute too fast’ if they don’t want to [kill scrap inflow].”
In the Northeast, preliminary prices are down by $50/gt on cuts and shredded scrap, and down by $60-$70/gt on prime.
As of mid-day Friday, “lots of things are still up in the air,” another source added. Official settled scrap prices are expected to emerge on Monday of next week.