Anticipated November Scrap Pricing May Push Flat Rolled Pricing Higher

Our ferrous scrap sources are advising Steel Market Update to expect a minimum of $20 per gross ton increase in scrap prices as we head into the month of November mill buys. We are finding there is some weakness being exhibited on the east coast with the Claymont plate mill being shut down by Evraz, coupled with other non-flat rolled production facilities such as V & M, Republic and Timken buying less due to production setbacks or smaller order books.

Even so, scrap dealers are telling SMU that flows have slowed and scrap is becoming tighter. The flat rolled mills are running close to full with lead times already running into December on hot rolled coil and spilling into January on upstream products. It is also expected that a number of maintenance jobs on furnaces will be coming to an end as we move into November.