Bangladesh, a major bulk ferrous scrap buyer from South Asia, has registered a rise of around 95% m-o-m in its bulk ferrous scrap imports in Jul’21. The country imported 0.22 million tonnes (mn t) of scrap in Jul as against 0.12 mn t in Jun, according to the vessel line-up data maintained with SteelMint.
The bounce-back in scrap demand has been on account of active restocking by buyers in Jun as part of their seasonal buying before the monsoons.
On a y-o-y basis the import volumes rose to 22% at 0.22 mn t in Jul’21 as against 0.18 mn t in Jul’20.
The US was the largest exporter at 0.19 mn t in Jul’21 as against 0.03 mn t in Jun’21. This was in line with buyers collecting inventories at favourable price levels offered by US mills and absence of imports from Japan. New Zealand was the second largest exporter at 0.03 mn t in Jul’21.
Market highlights
Imported bulk scrap buyers are active on increased restocking needs ahead of the monsoon. However, due to volatility in freight rates impacting Bangladesh’s bulk scrap purchases from Japan, mills kept preferring other origins like the US, New Zealand and Australia.
Construction activities have been shut from the past one months due to government lockdown restrictions. But these are now expected to slowly resume in the upcoming weeks due to resumption of steel manufacturing plants.
Outlook
Imports in August are likely to remain slow. Bangladesh mills are likely to resume imported scrap bookings actively by next week as lockdown will be lifted after 10 Aug’21, owing to start in production activities. However, a couple of bulk bookings from the US and Australia have been heard for early Sept shipments.
Leave a Reply