RMDAS figures portray modest ferrous price rebound

It might not qualify as a resurgence, but benchmark ferrous scrap grades held their value and even rose $2 to $5 per ton nationally in late July and the first 19 days of August, according to mill transaction data collected by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc.

In the trading period from July 20 to Aug. 19, domestic mills paid $5 more per ton for on average No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) than in the prior 30-day period, representing the largest price increase for shippers.

During the same time frame, shredded scrap gained $2 per ton in value, according to RMDAS, and mills paid $3 more per ton on average for the prompt industrial composite grade scrap.

The modest price increases nationally and in three different RMDAS geographic regions were not enough to boost any benchmark grade above the $400 per ton threshold. Nationally, mills in the 30-day summer stretch paid $396 per ton for prompt scrap, $381 per ton for shred and $326 per ton for No. HMS.

Among the three grades in the three different RMDAS regions (South, North Midwest and North/Central East), seven gained modest value of $1 to $8 per ton, while the value of shred in the North Midwest remained unchanged, and No. 1 HMS in the South lost $1 per ton in value.

The biggest price rise was for prompt scrap in the South, with the grade in that region increasing from $384 per ton in late June and early July to $392 per ton in late July and early August.

In mid-August, one scrap processor describes the supply and demand situation in the ferrous scarp landscape as “in a reasonable balance,” but another tells Recycling Today, “Supply is not plentiful; it has steadily reduced as seen in total quantities sold and shipped. If you look at most scrap yards, there is not a surplus of scrap inventories.”

Even the processor with supply concerns does not necessarily see the market as poised for a sizable spike upward in pricing, however.

“The difference is that demand is also down,” he says. “In that context, supply is in balance.”

One of the two processors contacted by Recycling Today says summer steel mill maintenance programs could put a dent in demand, while the other characterizes the export market as “a godsend” that has helped prices from dropping to even lower values.

However, an Aug. 20 report from Davis Index indicates the overseas market’s ability to spur higher prices is questionable in late August. The news and pricing service says No. 1 HMS and plate and structural (P&S) grades shipped from San Francisco are fetching from $8 per $10 per ton less than they were earlier in the month, with one shipment of No. 1 HMS falling to $299 per gross ton.