RMDAS figures show $20-per-ton-plus bump in ferrous market

Steel mill scrap purchasing transactions for late October and the first three weeks of November show ferrous scrap prices in the United States enjoying their first bump upward in several months.

The figures collected by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc. show the RMDAS prompt industrial composite grade gained $30 per ton as a national average between Oct. 21 and Nov. 20.

Gaining less value, but rising nonetheless, were the RMDAS No. 2 shredded scrap grade, up by $22 per ton nationally, and the No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) grade, up by $17 per ton during the same time frame.

Regionally, price increases were the weakest in the RMDAS South region, with grades rising $16 to $20 per ton there.

The strongest across-the-board price increases were in the North Central/East region, which could indicate that increased buying from brokers representing Turkish and Indian mills may have caused domestic bids to rise higher to compete.

The highest single domestic ferrous price as of late November is the $456 per ton prompt grades are fetching in the RMDAS North Midwest region (consisting of Illinois, the northwest corner of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the Dakotas).

The lowest figure, meanwhile, is $357 per ton for No. 1 HMS in that same region. Although some grades in some regions rose in value in August, it was the first across-the-board increase in U.S. ferrous prices since this March.

Domestic steelmaking output has weathered any turbulence it may have encountered tied to the United Auto Workers strike, where ratification by union members at all three affected automakers was achieved this week.

According to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), in the week ending Nov. 18, domestic steel output of 1.696 million tons is up by 0.8 percent from the previous week and represents an encouraging 6.4 percent increase in output from the comparable week last year.  

Pricing service Davis Index reports Turkish pricing that is rising slowly, including an average $2.25 per metric ton increase paid for imported scrap in the week of Nov. 13-17. “Mills are actively seeking for ferrous cargo in December-January,” Davis Index says.

India has offered a red hot bright spot for U.S. exporters throughout the year, boosting its purchases by a whopping 120 percent, or from 244,000 in the first half of last year to 537,000 metric tons in this year’s first half, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

In that market heading into November, buyers may be withdrawing temporarily as they sense a rise in prices. As India exits its Diwali holiday period and heads toward U.S. holiday seasons, Davis Index characterizes the Indian ferrous scrap import market as of Nov. 20 as “flat in a silent market.”

At the container port of Nhava Sheva, India, Davis Index says, “trades at higher prices remained very thin despite high hopes of demand revival.”