China’s domestic steel scrap prices reversed down over March 5-12, influenced by the recent fluctuations in prices of other raw materials. Also, steel scrap stocks held by domestic steelmakers reversed up during the week, as scrap traders rushed deliveries to mills for fear that prices will decline further, market watchers commented Monday.
As of March 12, Mysteel’s steel scrap price index had dipped slightly by Yuan 7.9/tonne ($1.2/t) on week to Yuan 3,254.4/t on delivery and including the 13% VAT, according to the database.
As of the day before, steel scrap stocks at the 61 Chinese blast furnace and electric-arc-furnace plants under Mysteel’s regular survey reversed up by 202,700 tonnes/day or 7.5% on week to 2.9 million t/d and bringing an end to four weeks of consistent declines. The mills’ inventories were sufficient for 11.9 days’ consumption at their present daily usage rate, or 0.7 day longer on week.
“The declines in other raw materials led some scrap traders to adjust their delivery pace, transporting more scrap to steel plants in case prices drop in the near term,” a Shanghai-based market watcher commented.
Also, Mysteel’s tracking shows that during the past week, over 50 steel mills had reduced their scrap buying prices generally in the range of Yuan 20-70/t, which also prompted more scrap traders to speed up their scrap deliveries to mills.
Over the survey period of March 5-11, scrap shipments to the 61 sampled steel mills averaged 4,022.8 t/d, up 48% on week, while daily scrap consumption among the surveyed mills averaged 3,753.3 t/d. The faster pace of delivery compared to consumption also contributed to the increase in scrap stocks among mills, Mysteel Global noted.
As of March 12, Mysteel PORTDEX 62% Australian Fines price in Qingdao had decreased by a total of Yuan 38/wmt on week to reach Yuan 1,138/wmt FOT and including the 13% VAT, the data shows.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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