Posted on 07 Apr 2020
Prices in the US domestic scrap market were expected to begin settling on Monday despite uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on trade. Market players are, however, unsure if prices will fully settle this week and see the process being prolonged.
Although most sources expect a sharp decline of up to $100/gross ton compared to March prices, some suppliers say this is unreasonable. Mills are nevertheless seen to be targeting steep decreases.
Although scrap demand has fallen due to mill outages amid the pandemic, scrap inflow is also reported to be very slow for the same reason. Both mills and suppliers agree that shredded scrap prices will record higher falls compared to prime grades this month.
A US Midwest supplier tells Kallanish: “I am hearing that some mills are talking about $100/gt decreases. No way. They neglect to see that things are not going to schedule on our side. They consider the fall in demand while ignoring the significant decrease in supply, I guess. A decrease above $60/gt is not reasonable.”
On the West Coast, US-origin containerised HMS 1&2 80:20 prices dropped further in Taiwan. Demand is quite low, with buyers initially waiting to get a clearer picture of the market. US-origin containerised HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap offers stood at $210-215/tonne cfr Taiwan at the beginning of last week and have now fallen to $203/t cfr.
On the East Coast, on the other hand, scrap prices increased in the second half of last week due to the lack of offers. Some Turkish mills in need of scrap purchases have been forced to pay higher prices for the scrap they could find.
Although there was a rumour of a US-origin scrap sale at $235/t cfr Turkey, it has not been confirmed. However, Kallanish hears that the limited number of deep-sea suppliers who are able to offer material will not deal at below $240-245/t cfr for HMS 80:20. Turkish mills are bidding at $235/t cfr for US-origin HMS 80:20.
Source:Kallanish
