Superior Aluminum Alloys LLC, a venture of OmniSource Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., took advantage of a generally bearish market by offering decidedly lower prices than those in effect this quarter.

The New Haven, Ind., based alloy producer secured one lot of 1.35 million pounds of the so-called “hockey pucks” at 47.65 cents a pound, about 10 percent less than the comparable price paid by the winning bidder three months earlier. Superior Aluminum will pay a total of $1.3 million vs. $1.44 million paid the last time, a “saving” of some $137,160.

The flip side is that if bearish conditions persist, not only the scrap will be cheaper-so will the specification ingot, molten metal and sows that Superior Aluminum makes for sale into the die casting market.

Asked about the status of the startup of Superior Aluminum, president Bill Bean said that no metal had been poured yet. However, two weeks of a furnace “cure cycle” are about to begin and melting would soon follow.