South Korea’s major steelmaker Hyundai Steel presented fresh bids for Japanese scrap purchase earlier today. The company has cut its purchase bids by JPY 500/t in comparison to last bids presented around two weeks ago. However, market participants maintained that the latest bids by Hyundai steel are completely unrealistic, given that the offers have actually risen in recent days, post the Kanto tender results during the mid of last week.
In bids presented today, Hyundai steel has set the purchase price for Japanese H2 scrap at JPY 22,000/t ($ 206) FoB Japan, while H1: H2 (50:50) from Japan was bid at 22,500 JPY /t. Bids for higher grades were also cut by similar margins, with prices for Japanese HS, Shredded, and Shindachi set at JPY 24,500/t FoB Japan.
According to sources, since the latest Kanto tender result witnessed the winning bids for H2 scrap at JPY 23,574/t FAS Japan, which translates to around JPY 24,500/t FoB Japan basis. The latest offers by Japanese suppliers have climbed up to at least JPY 24,000/t FoB Japan, while the Hyundai steel’s bid level of JPY 22,000/t FoB (for H2) has been labelled as absolutely unworkable from Japanese supplier point of view.
Industry insiders believe that Hyundai steel is not interested in booking Japanese scrap in the near term, making active bookings in the domestic South Korean scrap market, and looking for deep sea cargos from origins like USA.
Meanwhile, in the Japanese domestic market, Tokyo steel has not made any price revisions since mid of last week, after Kanto tender results, and it is being expected that no further sharp price cuts will be observed in the coming days.
Leave a Reply