The weekly Davis Index for north and south UK HMS 1&2 (80:20) ferrous scrap index dropped another £10.0/mt ($13.0/mt) over the past week to £162/mt delivered dockside as weak export demand put pressure on sellers to reduce collection prices and protect margins.
Davis Index confirmed that a large UK supplier had concluded its weekly contract negotiations with small- to medium-sized collectors by the end of day Jan 23 and had succeeded in pushing through further aggressive price cuts.
The Davis Index dockside OA (Plate & Structural) also declined by £10/mt to £185/mt from the prior week, while the index for 5A/5C (Frag Feed) fell by a steeper £12.5/mt to £100/mt. The decline in UK dockside collection prices has been driven by lower seaborne prices coupled with Turkish steel mills’ inactivity, as mills wait for the benchmarks to drop further before concluding fresh trades.
UK dockside collection prices have tumbled for a second consecutive week and amount to an accumulated decline of £20/mt since the market peaked on Jan 14. Davis Index understands that UK suppliers may need to nudge prices down £5/mt to strike new deals with Turkish buyers. In fact, last week, an Iskenderun-based mill purchased 22,000mt of HMS 1&2 (80:20) from the UK at $277/mt cfr, as reported by Davis Index on Jan 22.