Reply #8: Steel has been doing real well the last couple years [View All]

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mainly because the Chinese are using so much they haven't been dumping it on our market. Steel prices were also at unbelievable levels because the Chinese have been buying up all the scrap.
A few years ago hot rolled bands were going for $260 a ton and last year they were going for over $900 a ton. We were paying over $500 a ton for scrap steel last summer and today the price has collapsed to $90. Depending on the production process 25% to 60% of steel is produced from recycled scrap. Right now the industry is operating at 49% of capacity the market just vanished the middle of August.