RMDAS April figures show recycled steel price setback

After recycled steel experienced three months of rising value in the first quarter of 2025, steel mills in the United States paid from $19 to $51 per less per ton for benchmark grades in the April mill buying period.

Mill transaction figures collected and aggregated by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc. show price decreases in all three RMDAS geographic regions for its benchmark No. 2 shredded scrap, No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) and prompt industrial composite grades.

The largest single loss of value occurred for shredded scrap in the RMDAS North Midwest region, which dropped by $51 per ton in April compared with the previous buying period. (The North Midwest region includes mills in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and the northwest corner of Indiana.)

Shredded scrap’s value dropped by $38 or $39 per ton in the other two regions, causing shredded scrap to lose $43 in value on average in the U.S. this April compared with early March.

The RMDAS prompt grades composite (consisting of No. 1 busheling, No. 1 bundles and No. 1 factory bundles) came closest to retaining its value in April, with mills paying an average of $21 less per ton in April compared with March.

No. 1 HMS, meanwhile, fell by $30 per ton on average in the U.S., with each of the three regions recording a drop of from $29 to $32 per ton in price.

During the 30-day RMDAS period, which ran from March 21 to April 20, mills in the North Midwest paid an average of $371 per ton for No. 1 HMS, putting No. 1 HMS in that region at the bottom of the price ladder in April.

The grade retaining the most value into April was prompt industrial composite material in the North Central/East RMDAS region, which was purchased by mills for an average of $480 per ton in late March and early April.

Reports by Davis Index this week are not hinting at an imminent rebound in the ferrous market from the largest U.S. export destination of Turkey.

According to that news and pricing service, three U.S.-to-Turkey transactions made this week entailed prices that were on average $2.70 per metric ton less than prices paid earlier in April.