FOCUS: Pandemic sees domestic scrap prices disconnect from international market

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a shortage of ferrous scrap in many key supply locations, provoking a 21% rise in international scrap prices in just 12 days from April 3 to April 15. But despite this, domestic prices in many areas were settled lower in April's monthly negotiations.

Prices on the international market have been on a rollercoaster ride over recent weeks.
The price of steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was $265.53 on March 17. But three significant price drops between then and April 2 lowered the price to $200.98 per tonne, rattling the global markets with a $64 per tonne drop in fewer than 12 days.
From the start of April, prices jumped upward again in a similarly sharp movement, to $252.08 per tonne on April 14.
Turkey, the largest scrap importer, usually sets the trend for global scrap price movements, but the Covid-19 pandemic has affected countries around the globe.

Following the implementation of lockdown measures in various nations, steelmaking, construction sites, infrastructure projects and automotive producers have reduced production or suspended it entirely, which has led to demand falling off a cliff-edge, as...

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