Copper scrap discounts in the United States fell across the board this week, with competition in the form of Chinese export demand pressuring supply in an already tight domestic market.
The demand from Chinese importers, which have intensified their search for international copper feed in the light of Covid-19 disruptions, also pushed brass scrap prices up.The fall in copper scrap discounts came amid a marginal uptick in the Comex copper price compared with last month, with retail and peddler scrap supply slowing to a trickle in the US partly due to the Covid-19 shutdowns and weak end-market demand."Apart from the supply issue, the Chinese are paying more, so I brought down my discount to be competitive," one major copper scrap buyer source said.A scrap seller agreed that the copper scrap discounts have tightened due to the combined effect of peddler scrap drying up and China's export competition.A copper scrap trader also acknowledged seeing "additional interest from China, which...