Not surprisingly, the steel market has suffered along with the rest of the global economy. Domestic utilization of steel mills has fallen as demand from major industries has plummeted. Most of the supply reduction has come from Blast Furnace operators like U.S. Steel, Arcelor Mittal, and Cleveland Cliffs. Electric Arc Furnace mills like Steel Dynamics and Nucor usually have more control of their cost structure, but these are hardly usual times. The decrease in economic activity has resulted in a shortage in scrap available, placing a high floor under scrap prices. This higher scrap price has compacted the spread between Hot Rolled Coil and Scrap, decreasing the profitability of EAF mills. At this point, there is a question of if lower prices would result in more demand, or is it simply a dog chasing its tail? While a resurgence in demand from the energy sector should not be counted on any time soon, demand from the automotive sector should spring back as their supply chains restart. Although the big three automakers do not have a restart date planned as of yet, once they do restart the metals industry should see the double benefit of higher demand and an increase in the amount of scrap produced.