BIR 2021: Steelmaking margins, prime scrap premiums to remain high in short term Mammoth steel-scrap margins and high-grade premiums prevalent in recent months are likely to persist in the short term but should fall away by the end of the year, panelists at the ferrous session of this weekâs Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Convention said.
Steel prices have risen more sharply than those for ferrous scrap so far in 2021, leading to huge steelmaking margins for producers in countries such as the United States, Vietnam and Turkey.
âWeâve watched hot-rolled coil prices increase fourfold since last summer [and] at the same time, scrap has virtually doubled in price. There has been a decoupling of [finished] steel prices to scrap that historically we have not seen,â Tom Knippel, the commercial vice president of ferrous sales at Californiaâs SA Recycling, said at the BIR event on Tuesday June 1.