Japanese scrap prices which were witnessing a continuous fall since past almost three month’s period have finally shown sign of bottoming out. According to reports, South Korea’s leading EAF steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has kept bids for Japanese scrap unchanged this week at JPY 29,500/MT (USD 265), FoB as against the last week’s report.
Hyundai Steel seems to have stopped price cuts for imported scrap as Japan’s domestic scrap prices have been flat since past couple of days.
According to prices maintained with SteelMint, Hyundai Steel’s import bidding for Japanese H2 scrap has moved down by a total JPY 3,500/MT (USD 31) in 12 weeks’ time from its peak at JPY 33,000/MT in Jul’18 which had remained flat then till Oct’18. In line with this, price fall of Japanese scrap has also been stopped after almost 12 weeks’ period.
Hyundai Steel’s bid for Japanese H2 is still around JPY 2000/MT lower than the current price of JPY 31,500/MT at Tokyo Steel’s Utsunomiya plant located in the Kanto region.
According to Steeldaily’s report, inventories of leading steelmakers in South Korea have come below 1 MnT mark the first time in the last 13 weeks’ period following which few steelmakers are adjusting their production. Also, the volume of finish steel distribution is declining in the domestic market due to entry into the winter season.
~ Inputs from SteelDaily
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