By Paul Ploumis
ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The US H1 scrap price average prices were at $206.83 per long ton, as on 14th November, 2016. The prices climbed higher by $1.66 per long ton when compared with the previous week.
The average price of US H1 scrap in Pittsburgh, Chicago and Philadelphia was $206.83 per long ton, rising by $1.66 per long ton. The scrap prices had averaged at $205.17 during the week prior to this.
ALSO SEE US Scrap Prices
The H1 scrap average price in Pittsburg was $214.50 per long ton. The average price increased by $6 per long ton when compared with the previous week’s price. In Chicago the prices averaged at $217.50 per long ton. The prices here held steady when matched with the previous week. The average price in Philadelphia was $188.50 per long ton. The prices here too remained unchanged when compared with the week before.
The country’s ferrous scrap exports receded from the highs of 1.295 million tons recorded in August to 1.12 million tons in September. The shipments out of the country dropped significantly by over 13% month-on-month. When matched with the exports during September last year, the US ferrous scrap exports during Sep ’16 were down by 4.7%.
The largest importer of US ferrous scrap during the month was Turkey. The imports by Turkey from the US totaled 268,000 tons, accounting for almost one-fourth of the total shipments out of the US. The second largest destination of US scrap exports was Mexico. The Mexican imports totaled 188,000 tons. In third place was Taiwan with total imports of 126,000 tons during the month.
The year-to-date exports totaled 9.095 million tons during the initial nine months of the current year. The total value of exports was up by 8.5% year-on-year to $299.4 million during January-September 2016.
Meantime, the weekly statistics released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) indicates that raw steel production by the country dropped slightly by 1.4% during the week ending November 12th, 2016.
The total domestic raw steel output during the week ending November 12th was 1,580,000 net tons. The AISI data indicates that the US raw steel production has dropped marginally by 1.4% during the week. This is in comparison with the previous week (ie., the week ended November 5th) production figures of 1,602,000 net tons. However, the weekly production represents modest decline of 5.3% in comparison with production of 1,500,000 net tons during same week the previous year.
The capability utilization rate of US steel makers declined to 66.6% during the week ended November 12th, 2016. The capacity utilization rate has dropped considerably when compared with 67.5% during the previous week (ie., the week ending November 5th). However, capacity utilization was lower when compared with the rate of 62.7% during same week the previous year.
The crude steel production by various districts during the week was as follows:- North East (198,000 NT), Great Lakes (599,000 NT), Midwest (154,000 NT), Southern (560,000 NT) and Western (69,000 NT).
The year-to-date crude steel output through November 12th totaled 76,707,000 net tons, marginally down by 1.6% when matched with the output of 77,988,000 net tons during the same period last year. The capacity utilization rate during the period was up slightly from 70.9% a year before to 71.2% during the period ended November 12th this year.
