Sentiment has worsened in the US domestic scrap market as September trading approaches.

Although there were earlier expectations prices could strengthen after two months of remaining rangebound, these have now disappeared. On the contrary, more people now find a decline in scrap prices during September trading likely.

One scrap dealer tells Kallanish: “It seems mill outages will widen in September and October as order books are quite weak. This, coupled with the negative mood in export destinations, is worsening sentiment. The HRC price rises we saw earlier this month seem to have no solid fundamentals.”

For US West Coast business, the scrap market in Taiwan continues to decline this week with the latest containerised HMS 1&2 80:20 offers from the US at below $330/tonne cfr Taiwan. Taiwanese steel mill Feng Hsin kept scrap buying and rebar sales prices stable this week, following its sharp reduction in scrap values last week.

On the East Coast, US-origin scrap prices fell to as low as $360/t cfr Turkey for HMS 1&2 80:20 on the latest bookings last week. Some Turkish mills, inquiring about scrap on Monday, are seen trying to pressure prices. However, most US suppliers are resisting lower levels with the support of European suppliers and the improving Chinese market on Monday. Although there were rumours of two fresh US-origin HMS 1&2 80:20 sales at $363.5/t cfr Turkey, these were yet to be confirmed at the time of publication.