U.S. Recycled Steel Prices Rise in December 2025 After Subdued Period

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): According to Davis Index, factors prompting higher bidding for recycled steel emerged in December 2025, following a subdued pricing market that ran from May into November. Severe weather incidents in several parts of the United States in late November and early December caused disruptions leading to construction slowdowns and material flow interruptions.

By the second week of December, metals industry media and pricing services reported an upward trend in bids made by U.S. mills. In its Dec. 10 summary, Davis Index described a $10 per ton price increase for prime and prompt grades, while some shredded, plate, structural, and heavy melting steel (HMS) grades were fetching $20 per ton more compared with November.

Davis Index referred to inclement weather as contributing to supply bottlenecks that helped convince mills price increases may be inevitable.

The news service says the rising price of domestically made steel in the U.S. also contributed to an ability for electric arc furnace (EAF) mills to maintain their margins and provided confidence to processors and shippers to hold out for an increase.

Although the export market purchased less recycled steel in the first half of 2025 compared with one year earlier, in late 2025 there seems to be sufficient demand to provide another reason why ferrous scrap is gaining value.

Daily tracking by Davis Index for bulk No. 1 and No. 2 HMS cargoes leaving New York for Turkey shows transaction prices rising from about $305 per metric ton in the first week of November to more than $321 by the end of the month. That 5.2 percent price increase was followed by an additional 3.2 percent bump to $331.25 per metric ton by Dec. 10.

In the export market, analysts point to an oversupply of billets and slabs from China as having poured into rolling mills in Turkey and India throughout 2025, tempering activity at melt shops in those two nations.

The second half of 2025, however, has seen the European Union, Mexico, and other frequent Chinese steel destinations introducing measures to deflect the tide of low-cost exports.

In December, the Chinese government introduced a policy that may contribute to reduced steel exporting activity, when the General Administration of Customs issued a list of at least 100 types of steel or steel-containing products that will be part of an export quota system beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

This month, Kallanish Commodities has cited China's National Bureau of Statistics as announcing that China produced slightly less than 69.9 million metric tons of crude steel in November 2025, a decrease of 10.8 percent compared with November 2024.

According to the World Steel Association, the November 2025 figure is 2.9 percent lower than October 2025 and 4.9 percent lower than September 2025.

Courtesy: www.indexbox.io