- Two bulk cargoes booked by Bangladeshi steel mills apart from Kanto tender booking
- Bangladesh bulk ferrous scrap imports up by 39% y-o-y in CY’20
- Domestic rebar prices remain largely stable
Bangladesh’s imported scrap market witnessed a flurry of bulk scrap bookings after a pause of around two weeks. Bookings were on hold due to bid-offer disparity. But with less inventories, mills have resumed bookings. Two bulk scrap bookings were confirmed to have been done for Feb’21 shipment in addition to booking made at today’s Kanto tender. Below are the deal details-
- Around 30,000 t of USA origin bulk cargo, comprising of HMS 1&2(80:20) and shredded has been booked and the deal was concluded in the range of $500-505/t CFR Chittagong basis
- Another Australian bulk vessel has been booked for around 25,000 t at $495-500/t CFR basis
- Kanto Tetsugen- Japan’s monthly ferrous scrap export tender concluded today for the month of Jan’21. The winning bid was awarded a total of 15,000 t of Japanese H2 scrap at an average price of JPY 44,751/t ($432) FAS. Notably, the cargo has been booked by Bangladesh based prominent steel mill
Containerised imported scrap market remains active– Numerous containerised scrap bookings have been reported this week at higher level offers. Notably, only Chittagong-based steel mills are aggressively booking fresh slots, as steel mills have an advantage over logistics and access to lower landing scrap prices as well. Dhaka based mills are relying on local scrap.
Recent deals and offers-
- A Bangladesh based prominent trader has sold around 13,000 t of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $480 in last two days from Australia/UK/Brazil. Furthermore, another deal concluded for 3,500 t at $475/t towards the closing of last week
- Fresh offers for shredded from different origins is being quoted at $510-515/t CFR Chittagong basis, up by $10-15 w-o-w
- HMS 1&2 (80:20) offers from different origins is being cited at $485-495/t CFR levels
- USA/Canada origin PNS is being offered at $515/t CFR Chittagong level
Bangladesh bulk ferrous scrap imports up by 39% y-o-y– Bangladesh’s bulk steel scrap imports rose by 39% m-o-m to 2.32 mn t in CY’20 as compared to 1.68 mn t was recorded in CY’19. USA remained the largest supplier at 1.22 mn t (up 37% y-o-y) followed by Japan and Australia at 0.8 and 0.16 mn t respectively. After Government imposed an import duty on billets, its usage became non-viable since 2015. This has been an important factor behind the rise of scrap imports during the last five years.
Domestic rebar offers remain largely stable– Domestic rebar prices have been observed mostly stable on a weekly basis. Major mills are quoting for rebar at BDT 66,000-67,000/t exw Chittagong basis while secondary mills are currently quoted at BDT 61,000-63,000/t exw.
Outlook– Market insiders consider that finished steel prices are unable to support the hike in scrap prices. There is limited buying interest at higher levels at these speculating market situations. Some market participants are expecting the price rally to halt amid bearish sentiments.
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