Earlier today, a Detroit-area mill kicked off this month’s scrap trade when they came out at down $20/gt on P&S, down $20/gt on shred, and down $50/gt on busheling. A Chicago-area mill announced shortly thereafter at those same pricing levels.
As of the time of publication, other mills have yet to announce.
Some scrap market sources say they’re not entirely surprised at the idea that mills may want to try to take prices down this month, especially in that earlier in the week, multiple mills canceled December shipments that had not yet arrived.
An Ohio Valley-area source said the big question at this point, is whether this is where settled prices will actually land.
A second source from that region agreed.
“It looks like mills want to average down [the cost of their scrap] inventory with steel prices likely capped for now,” he wrote. “The [significantly higher numbers we saw during] December [were] a surprise and this is giveback.”
Looking to the Midwest, a final source from that part of the country said that just because this mill has announced their pricing for this month, that’s not to say they’ll be able to buy much at those numbers.
“It will be Monday before we know how the rest of the [market] will respond,” he concluded.
January settled prices are not expected to be available until early-to-mid next week.