Ferrous News

Ferrous Wheel

Scrap pricing for ferrous grades seems to have smoothed out from its rollercoaster ways of 1998 and 1999 and is providing a more relaxing ride, more along the lines of a Ferris wheel.

“We’re going to see $5 trading range up and down throughout May and June, predicts Don Zulanch of Cohen Bros. Inc., Middletown, Ohio. Zulanch adds that he sees “really nothing getting out of whack” during the spring and early summer.

As with any forecast, there are always variables that can throw a prediction off course, such as the onset of a wider general economic recession in North America. (For those too young to remember them, they used to occur far more frequently than every 11 years.)

But the recently steady condition of ferrous scrap prices seems to be based on accompanying stable conditions on both the supply and demand side.

Zulanch reports that pricing for all ferrous grades is stable, although “bushling is gaining and has almost matched bundle pricing.” He adds that “some mills feel more comfortable buying bushling, because they can see what they’re getting.

“Volumes are up and the weather is decent,” Zulanch said in early April, before a mid-month rainy spell may have changed his outlook He notes that on the supply side, that situation could change somewhat. “If slight downward pricing continues, it could hurt our supply situation.”

A prolonged rainy season could also cause supply fluctuations. Shredder feedstock supplies are more reliable, Zulanch says, when it is dry enough for equipment to operate in unpaved yards and for mobile equipment to get into dismantler locations to bale or crush car bodies.