The stainless steel scrap market in the United States took another major step downward on Tuesday April 30, with prices for the 300-series grades dropping across the board while those for the chrome grades appeared poised to fall in the third quarter.
"Domestics have softened, I think they would like to drop more, but the flow will stop," one dealer said, indicating that earlier attempts to drop prices by a penny brought material flows down to a trickle. Stainless scrap prices fell consistently this week, with most dealers and processors indicating not only weakness in the market but - more importantly - that there was very little confidence that prices would improve in the first half of 2019."The [nickel] market's inability to maintain levels above $5.75 per lb, in conjunction with expected lower iron values and some weaker mill demand, has forced [scrap processors] to pull...