October Scrap Prices Firm Up as Week Progressed

In a normal ferrous scrap market the first deals done at the beginning of the month are usually those with the best pricing. The month of October is turning out to be one of the exception months as many dealers rejected the preliminary lower offers and managed to trade steel scrap at the same numbers as September by the end of the week.

Prior to the month beginning, a number of scrap sources were forecasting scrap pricing to trend down by approximately $10 per gross ton. Part of the reasoning behind the weakness was the belief that steel prices would drop and the concern of additional metallics supply with the new DRI (direct reduced iron) plant Nucor was supposed to start in October.