RMDAS figures show few regional differences

June ferrous scrap mill buying figures collected by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA) show few variations in prices in the three geographic regions defined by RMDAS.

Prompt scrap traded in the $631 to $634 range in all three United States regions: the North Central/East, the North Midwest and the South.

Shredded scrap traded in just a slightly less narrow range in June: $500 per ton in the North Midwest; $507 in the North Central/East; and $511 in the South.

The No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) grade showed the widest variation, fetching just $451 per ton in the South but earning average bides of $475 in the North Midwest and $484 in the North Central/East.

The HMS discrepancy likely ties into export buyers bidding up prices in the Northeast, possibly drawing scrap from the eastern range of the North Midwest territory. Processors in the South, meanwhile, may not have been as active connecting with overseas buyers.

Nationally, ferrous scrap trends across all three RMDAS grades vaulted upward in June, with prompt grades and shredded scrap prices rising by $57 per ton compared with May, and No. 1 HMS fetching an additional $45 per ton on average in June.

The RMDAS Prompt Industrial Composite national average price of $623 per ton was $126 higher than the average price paid for shredded scrap and $155 per ton more than what U.S. mills paid, on average, for No. 1 HMS in June.