Indian steel makers prefer domestic sponge and scrap over imported scrap due to high difference between prices. Scrap imports to India seems to decline further in coming weeks.
Global scrap prices have moved up sharply in last few days because of aggressive buying from Turkey (world’s largest importer of Scrap). This seems to be not a good indication for Indian scrap importers as depreciating Rupee (which has weakened by around 2% against a Dollar in last 5-6 days) and high scrap offers from US and European suppliers have kept them out of the market for a quite long time.
SteelMint assessed that offers from Dubai for HMS 1&2 stands at USD 345-350/MT CFR India. Similarly, offers from UK and Europe for shredded scrap are being quoted at USD 375-380/MT CFR Mumbai and HMS at around USD 360-365/MT CFR Mumbai, in containers. According to the trade sources, prices are too high and domestic scrap and sponge iron is preferred over imported scrap.
“There are offers for imported scrap at USD 345-350/MT from Dubai and USD 365-370/MT from Europe (in containers), but we do not see much sense buying it at those levels. Current landed cost of imported scrap of HMS grade comes around INR 24,500-25,000/MT, where as domestic scrap of almost same grade is available at around INR 22,500/MT.” said a Mumbai-based Induction furnace manufacturer.
Turkish Scrap imports prices increased by USD 15-20/MT M-o-M. Currently imported ferrous scrap price for HMS 1&2 are being quoted at USD 392/MT CFR Turkey in bulk. Turkey is the largest importer of scrap in the world followed by Korea and India.
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