Stainless scrap prices in the United States were flat this week, with the seasonal year-end lull poised to linger into next year due to low nickel prices and an anticipated downturn in ferro-chrome pricing in the first quarter, market sources said.
"It is a typical fourth-quarter slowdown and inventory reduction period, but excess supply is compounding the ugliness [and] allowing mills [consuming scrap] to be extremely aggressive on discounts," one domestic processor source said. "It has been a dismal fourth quarter and while we would be thrilled with an explosive start to 2019, the fundamentals do not support such optimistic thinking," one dealer said. "The current market pricing is still causing some head shaking." Fastmarkets AMM's assessment of broker/processor...