The inter-merchant spot market for UK-origin light iron scrap was steady in the week ended Friday October 18, extending a run of stability into a third week amid a recovery in European steel scrap export prices.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel scrap 5C, loose old light, domestic, delivered inter-merchant, UK, was ?60-80 ($77-102) per tonne on Friday. The market is around where it was when it reached an annual low in January this year when the price range was ?60-90 per tonne. The UK market also has support from domestic major processors that need a steady volume of scrap to make their high-cost machines run at a more cost-effective level. Weaker scrap prices - they have been falling steadily in the year to date - have recently discouraged collections; there are fewer scrap arisings from a slump...