Recycling is the fastest-moving part of supply and normally the most predictable: raise the price, get the metal. This cycle the elasticity has been visibly weaker.
Two plausible explanations
Either households expect further gains and are holding, or the metal that would ordinarily be sold has already been sold in previous cycles and the stock available at the margin is genuinely smaller.
Why it matters for the balance
Supply models that assume a reliable scrap response will understate tightness if that response keeps arriving late and small.
