Market Report, Nonferrous Scrap, Europe

Nonferrous Scrap>> Europe>> Anton van Genuchten, Reukema Recycling

I think already at the BIR meeting (in late October), everyone was talking that the year is over and we’ll see what happens next year. Business is moderate, volumes are moderate and a lot of people, especially in copper-related products, are very cautious in their buying.
 

We see a lot of the steelworks basically closing their books for the rest of the year and saying they will be back in contact after the New Year. We see export markets coming back a little bit. They were very absent in recent months. We see a little bit of demand coming back from Asia. It is all at a subdued volume to what we did before the summer.

I think also in the yards, most suppliers have had a good year. They are taking it easy, demanding relatively high prices. It is very difficult to buy at a decent margin. Everyone is only willing to sell at the price of tomorrow. Also, their volumes are slow. People are comfortable having their profits at the beginning of the year. They are now comfortable with sitting and waiting a little bit.

The LME prices are having a big influence because people expect the scrap prices to follow, and they are not doing so. That depresses the volumes a little bit. At the moment, we see the gap widening. We see higher discounts coming into the market. The LME levels are very much distrusted.

There is considerable stock in the markets for stainless steel scrap. The market is not very liquid and not flowing very much. People are waiting for the steelworks to come back into the market, but that is not expected until the latter part of the first quarter, probably February or March. I think aluminium scrap is still the one nonferrous metal where there is ample supply and prices don’t move at all.

Asian buyers, because of the state of the dollar, have been sourcing a lot of their material in the U.S. and not in Europe.

Anton van Genuchten of Reukema Recycling can be contacted at a.vangenuchten@reukema.com.