SteelMint learned in recent conversation with participants that imported scrap offers to Pakistan have moved up following recent jump in Turkey scrap prices. Suppliers have turned optimistic on the upward movement as buyers started looking for materials at higher levels.
SteelMint’s assessment for Shredded scrap moved up at USD 328-333/MT, CFR Qasim. In recent trades, Shredded 211 from UK and US origin sold at around USD 330/MT, CFR. However, asking rates for Shredded stand in the range of USD 330-335/MT, CFR Qasim, pulling assessment up 7-8/MT on a weekly basis.
Middle East and South Africa origin HMS heard mostly at around USD 325/MT, CFR but very limited deals are being reported for HMS scrap at the moment. The UK and European HMS assessed at around USD 310-315/MT, CFR depending on quality.
“Few customers have turned positive for scrap restocking and slowly improving their bid price in the market, however, very limited trades observed at upward corrected prices yet” shared a source.
Local scrap prices observed upward pressure amid low inventories available and rising global prices. Local scrap equivalent to Shredded was being offered at around PKR 57,500-58,000/MT (USD 410-415) maintaining uptrend since past couple of weeks.
The announcement of the Mini budget brought very few substantial changes in the steel sector. Steel mills were hopeful for some positivity to change current poor-condition of the industry. However, it was not enough to bring any significant change keeping local market deprived of improvement for yet another week.
Local steel market demand remains dull – Rallying liquidity issues, surplus availability of steel and continuing poor demand kept steel prices under pressure. Prices remained the same as compared to last week amid very slow movement in the local market.
CPEC and Metropolitan construction projects are slowly turning operational while risks associated with these projects have diminished now and improved transparency likely to boost Pakistan’s construction industry over the course of next decade.
SteelMint’s local steel price assessment –
| Average Prices, Ex-work Punjab and Lahore, inclusive of taxes | |||
| Particular | 28-Jan’19 | Last assessment on 21-Jan’19 | Change |
| PKR/MT | PKR/MT | PKR | |
| Local Scrap (Equivalent to Shredded) | 57,500-58,000 | 57,000-57,500 | +500 |
| Bala (Local Billet) | 73,000-74,000 | 73,000-73,500 | 0 |
| CC Billet (Grade 40) | 79,000-79,500 | 79,000-79,500 | 0 |
| CC Billet (Grade 60) | 80,500-81,000 | 80,000-80,500 | +500 |
Source: SteelMint Research
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