Exports provide boost to ferrous market

Sustained and sometimes vigorous demand for ferrous scrap from overseas buyers has helped keep the ferrous scrap market in the United States buoyant at the start of the fourth quarter of 2021.

Using the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) No. 2 shredded grade as a benchmark, the value of ferrous scrap has risen from $295 per ton last October to $468 per ton this September, or nearly 60 percent in one year’s time.

Processors frequently have benefitted from monthly price increases to their inventories during that time, while brokers have been able to connect willing overseas buyers with North American sellers throughout the year.

In mid-October, Davis Index is reporting competitive and upward bidding for containerized ferrous scrap off the U.S. East and West Coasts. The metals information services provider says prices for several ferrous grades on the East Coast rose by $10 or more per ton this week.

Buying activity on the West Coast also has increased, says Davis Index, with bidding for containers coming from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Earlier the same week, Fastmarkets AMM reported that mills from Turkey had swooped back into the bulk cargo market on the East Coast. The $440 to $450 prices assigned to these transactions point to a rebound in the East Coast export market after a temporary lull.

Also on the East Coast, Davis Index reports that “construction activity in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is encouraging a positive sentiment on steel demand.”

As of mid-October, Davis Index has shredded scrap selling for $465 per ton off the West Coast (out of Los Angeles) and $481 per ton in the New York export market.

Those prices are down from peaks reached in June and July, but they represent a return of per-ton values that were lost after prices in many U.S. regions lost from $20 to $40 per ton in early September.

The Economic Committee of the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) is forecasting that global steel output will rise in most of the world the rest of this year and into the first quarter of 2022 (excluding in China, which buys very little ferrous scrap on the global market).