September scrap market quickly shaped up to be a seller’s market for ferrous scrap. In Chicago, ferrous sales hit the ground running on Tuesday, September 2nd and wrapped-up in just 36 hours with all grades enjoying an increase. Chicago’s ferrous market settled up $30 per gross ton on prime grades and up $40 per gross ton on cut grades and steel turnings compared to August prices. This is the largest month-over-month increase of 2020.
Lower overall demand in the manufacturing sector in Q220 due to the impacts of COVID-19, forced mills to maintain lower scrap metal inventories. The recent recovery in demand, indicated by the increase in mill utilization rates, has mills under pressure to secure scrap tons. The combination of lower mill inventories, recovery of finished steel demand, and stable export markets has sellers enthused about the October outlook.
August proved to be a great month for non-ferrous scrap sales and September is positioned to follow suit. “There is great demand both domestically and overseas and the outlook for September looks even better,” states George O’Brien, Director of Non-Ferrous. “Now is the time to sell and take advantage of the strongest market prices we have seen in 2020.”