US buying spreads for mill and extrusion grades weakened over the past week as LME Aluminium continued its rally to the highest point in two years.
The official LME Aluminium cash price settled Tuesday at $2,389/mt ($1.083/lb), up by $67/mt from Apr 20.
The physical market for mill grade scrap remains balanced with supply meeting the strong downstream demand from rolling mills. Some buyers noted that spreads will continue to widen in May with some forward deals for June also heard at similar spreads. Thus, the market held out against LME’s jump by widening spreads to realistic price levels. Extrusion grade spreads also saw similar changes this week.
The weekly Davis Index spread for mill-grade MLC widened by 0.9¢/lb to 39.2¢/lb under the Midwest transaction price. Outright prices for the grades rose to 93.6¢/lb delivered US consumer, up by 2.8¢/lb. The spread for painted siding also weakened by 0.9¢/lb to 41.4¢/lb under Midwest.
Meanwhile, the spread for 1100 & 3003 clips tightened by 2.8¢/lb to 13.5¢/lb under Midwest while transaction prices for the grade rose by 6.5¢/lb to $1.193/lb delivered.
Spreads for 6063 new bare extrusion scrap widened by 2¢/lb to 9.5¢/lb under Midwest with confirmed deals ranging between 7-10¢ under. Outright prices settled at $1.233/lb delivered, up by 1.7¢/lb.