Special bar quality (SBQ) prices in the United States declined after ferrous scrap costs dropped in September while demand remained muted.
Plentiful inventory and weak end-use markets including the domestic oil-and-gas industry and automakers ensured that SBQ producers could not sustain August prices, according to market participants. "The market is languishing," a mill source said. Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel bar hot-rolled SBQ 1-inch round 1000 series (carbon), fob mill US fell to $36 per hundredweight ($720 per ton) on Friday September 13, down by 5.3% from $38 per cwt one month ago and by 20% from $45 per cwt one year...