According to reports, South Korea’s leading EAF steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has continued booking bulk scrap vessels from USA. The steelmaker booked bulk cargo of 50,000 MT mix grade scrap comprising 30,000 MT of Shredded, 10,000 MT of HMS 1&2 (80:20) and 10,000 MT of P&S scrap at an average price of USD 355/MT, CFR South Korea.
Hyundai Steel made this eastern USA contract after around seven years’ period and it seems to have concluded with marginal price advantage over the cargoes booked by other major steelmakers ahead of Chuseok festival holidays (23rd-25th Sept) in South Korea. The price gap between latest booking and earlier bulk scrap bookings recorded very low mainly on high shipping costs and limited suppliers in the global market. However, the sentiments and prices in the global scrap market stand strong at the moment.
Earlier to this, SeAH Besteel booked bulk cargo comprising HMS 1 at USD 355/MT, CFR while Dongkuk steel mill heard to have procured a bulk cargo at USD 358/MT, CFR.
The steelmaker has been preferring USA bulk bookings since past few months amid too high Japanese scrap prices. On the other hand, eastern USA scrap prices had come under pressure due to sharply declined purchasing power of Turkey over slump in Turkish currency Lira. Eastern USA cargo was comparatively preferred over high-priced western USA cargoes.
Hyundai Steel remains away from bidding for Japanese scrap – Amid rising scrap inventories in hand and successively increased Japanese scrap prices, Hyundai has been skipping bidding for Japanese scrap since more than 2 months. Hyundai purchased Japanese scrap directly through individual negotiations from spot market instead of presenting bids for it, however, it remained away from Japanese scrap with no deal heard this week.
– Inputs from SteelDaily
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