Bangladesh steel mills have adopted a ‘wait-and-watch’ approach this week. After booking four bulk scrap cargoes last week, buyers are now waiting for prices to come down further as they are decently booked for Feb’21 shipments.
Fresh deep sea bulk scrap offers from US to Bangladesh are yet to be quoted, considering most of the major players have already booked for Feb’21 shipment. Few sources highlighted that a bulk USWC cargo was booked at around $485/t CFR but no firm confirmation was received till the time of publishing this report.
“Most of the larger bulk players are all sold out and no new offers are being made at the moment. March shipment offers will start in another 7-10 days, Bangladesh buyers are also well covered for February shipment” shared a major US scrap trader in Bangladesh.
Fresh offers for bulk Japanese H2 are being quoted around $465-475/t, CFR Chittagong levels. SteelMint’s assessment for Japanese H2 now stands at $470/t CFR Chittagong level, registering a sharp drop of $35 on a weekly basis.
Containerised imported scrap market overview– Containerised imported scrap prices to Bangladesh have dropped significantly by $40 over the week. Mid-sized mills are waiting for further price correction.
“Sentiment turned negative because of price fall in Pakistan and Turkey. This week everyone will be quiet, no one will be interested at these levels and there will be no deals till last week of January” sources have reported to SteelMint.
“Market is quite soft this week, because Turkey has started going down by $30. Everybody is anticipating that market will fall further. There is wait-and -watch going on, nobody is willing to commit anything now. Probably next week they would start buying. No firm prices as such” shared a prominent trader.
- Fresh offers for shredded from different origins is being quoted at $470/t CFR Chittagong basis, down by $20-30 as compared to last week
- HMS 1&2 (80:20) is being quoted at $440-450/t CFR Chittagong levels
Few mills lower rebar offers– Secondary mills are currently quoted at BDT 59,000-60,000/t exw, market expectations stand at BDT 55,000/t level. However big players are holding the rebar offers stable. There is less demand for steel at the moment, as governmental projects have started but the contractors are not interested to pay a higher price, SteelMint learnt. Local scrap prices stand at BDT 38,000/t exy Chittagong basis.
Outlook– Market insiders expect that trades may happen from next week for Mar’21 shipment.
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