Unwanted milestone reached in September

Global – Within days of Recycling International’s previous ferrous scrap market analysis in late August, many experts were seemingly resigned to the prospect of bellwether HMS I/II 80/20 scrap prices sliding below the US$ 200 per tonne barrier. And these fears have now been realised.

Value has continued to flow out of the international ferrous scrap market over recent weeks such that latest cfr price indications for shipments from Europe to Turkey are US$ 190-195 per tonne for standard quality HMS I/II 80/20 scrap and US$ 195-200 per tonne for shredded.

Key factors in the decline have been fragile steelmaking capacity utilisation and a continuing glut of low-priced steel exports, most notably out of China. Globally, crude steel producers’ capacity utilisation sank further in August to just 68%, which compares to 68.4% in July this year and 71.6% in the corresponding month of 2014.

The 65 countries reporting their figures to the World Steel Association produced a total of 132.337 million tonnes of steel during the course of the month for a drop of 3% from August 2014. Rolling together the figures for the first eight months of the year, the same nations produced 1.078 billion tonnes of crude steel – or 2.3% less than the 1.103 billion tonnes for the corresponding period last year.

The full version of Recycling International’s latest ferrous market analysis will appear in its October 2015 issue.