Weekly US buying spreads for mill and extrusion grade scrap varied on Tuesday as demand remained strong for some grades but weakened for others.
The official LME Aluminium cash price settled Tuesday at $2,341/mt ($1.06/lb), down by $128/mt from May 18.
Buyers kept spreads flat or adjusted them depending on the grade’s demand following a decline in the LME Aluminium market. Spreads for segregated clips and litho sheet, which are in short supply, tightened significantly as sellers tried to hold their prices at last week’s levels.
Still, spreads have trended wider for the most part due to healthy scrap inventories at most mills, resulting in a change of 6¢/lb or more in outright pricing. These factors have kept trading subdued in the domestic aluminum scrap market this week.
Buyers expect prices to trend down in the near term due to abundant scrap availability. On the extruder side, most spreads were rangebound due to limited supply and most trades being made at historically high numbers.
The weekly Davis Index spread for 1100 & 3003 clips tightened by 4.4¢/lb to 11.3¢/lb under Midwest while transaction prices for the grade fell by 1.7¢/lb to $1.219/lb delivered.
Meanwhile, the spread for mill-grade MLC strengthened by 2.7¢/lb to 43.3¢/lb under the Midwest transaction price. Outright prices for the grade were at 89.6¢/lb delivered US consumer, down by 3.7¢/lb. The spread for painted siding widened by 2.4¢/lb to 46.1¢/lb under Midwest.
Spreads for 6063 new bare extrusion scrap tightened by 0.7¢/lb to 8.3¢/lb under Midwest. Transaction prices settled at $1.249/lb delivered, down by 5.4¢/lb.