Bids for H2 grade up by Yen 1000/MT and that for high grade scrap up by Yen 2000/MT. Increasing spread between bids for high grade and H2 scrap indicate steel maker’s increased inclination towards high-grade scrap.
South Korea’s leading EAF steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has presented bids for Japanese scrap imports today after almost 3 week’s period. As per latest update received on this, Hyundai Steel has raised the bids for high-grade Japanese scrap by JPY 2000/MT (USD 18) and JPY 1000/MT (USD 9) for H2 following the uptrend in Japan’s domestic market. Amid aggressive plans to cut rebar production and ample scrap inventories, the company had abandoned bids for Japanese scrap for previous 2-3 weeks.
Hyundai steel has placed bids for H2 scrap at JPY 34,000/MT (USD 312), FoB Japan for this week. Bids for H2 grade have increased by JPY 1000/MT (USD 9) against its last bids placed on 9th May’18 at JPY 33,000/MT, FoB Japan.
While revised bids for medium grade scrap like HS and Shredded stood at JPY 38,000/MT (USD 348) and for high-grade scrap Shindachi Daichibara (SB) bids presented at JPY 41,000/MT (USD 376) on FoB Japan, up JPY 2000/MT (USD 18) respectively. This put spread between H2 and medium grade HS/ Shredded widened to JPY 4000/MT now from JPY 3000/MT earlier while price gap between H2 and high-grade Shindachi widened from JPY 6000/MT to JPY 7000/MT now.
Hyundai Steel heard to have presented the bids for total 200,000 MT which is almost double than its usual bid volumes on weekly basis owing to the long gap of almost 3 weeks’. It also seems that bidding for this week is done considering probable bidding of Japan’s Kanto Tetsugen monthly scrap export tender for June’18.
Recently South Korean another steel mill Dongkuk Steel has contracted for Japanese scrap with bids presented at JPY 34,500/MT (USD 317), FoB following which Hyundai could have increased its bids for Japanese scrap this week. However, bids for H2 by Hyundai still remained JPY 500/MT lower than bids presented by Dongkuk steel.
According to market participants, currently, Japanese suppliers have considerable volumes of scrap to offer as export activities have slowed down since last couple of weeks in Japan. Following which suppliers may turn active to supply scrap at corrected prices. It would be interesting to see for next bids which would be put by Hyundai Steel.
Japanese scrap prices remain strong – Japan’s leading EAF steel mini-mill – Tokyo Steel has revised its domestic scrap purchase prices fifth time in May effective from 30th May’18. Now H2 scrap fetches at JPY 36,500/MT (USD 335) for Utsunomiya which is based in the Kanto region in north Japan and JPY 35,500/MT at Tahara works in Central Japan.
Japan’s H2 scrap export offers from suppliers assessed in the range of 35,000-36,000/MT (USD 321-330) FoB for Kanto region which is still higher than Hyundai steel’s recent bids. While price gap between Shindachi and H2 is up to JPY 8,000/MT in Japan.
– Inputs from Steel Daily
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