A shortage of shredded scrap is squeezing major supplier markets and pushing up the prices of key grades in the world's export markets, sources told Fastmarkets this week.
Lower inflows to scrapyards and stronger demand for key grades in the major supplier nations have made it much harder for overseas consumers to secure shredded scrap over the past month.A growing preference for "shred" was evidenced in two cargo sales to Turkey this week in which United States East Coast exporters got a $7-per-tonne increase for shredded while prices for an 80:20 mix of No1 and No2 heavy melting scrap went for $2-3 per tonne less than the previous reported US sale to Turkey. The export spread between sales prices for the HMS and shredded scrap in these cargoes swelled to $19-20 per tonne in the two deals...