Steelmakers in the UK have won a round of price cuts in their monthly intake of ferrous scrap from domestic suppliers for October delivery contracts, amid a slowdown across the European steels sectors, Fastmarkets heard on Friday October 11.
The UK monthly steel scrap market to domestic consumers has settled with prices down by an average of about ?35 ($43) per tonne.Persistent weakness in consumer demand both at home and abroad influenced the price settlements, industry sources told Fastmarkets. One consumer settled at a price cut of ?40 per tonne for its intake of low residual grades, although that was to make up for a lower-than-average cut the month before, the consumer said.Weakening export prices into Europe's traditional steel scrap export markets of Turkey and the Indian subcontinent, which fell steadily in August and for most of September, have since stabilized and picked up in October, according to Fastmarkets' assessments.That shift in price trend, along with tighter steel scrap availability from Russia due to new export restrictions, may support European scrap markets in the near term, sources said."There has been a bit of a bounce in European export prices...