South Korea, a leading scrap importing country, saw a significant change in prices of imported and domestic scrap. Until last year, steelmakers largely relied on short-distance imported scrap but the mills have now adopted a different strategy and are procuring domestic material, as per SteelDaily reports.
Over the past 6 years, the gap between imported and regional scrap was KRW 18,000/t ($14/t). Domestic scrap prices fell and the spread between local and imported scrap shrank to KRW 7,000/t ($6/t). Currently, the Light Weight A prices are KRW 695,000/t ($556/t), while imported H2 price is at KRW 702,000/t ($562/t).
However, as per reports, in early April 2022, domestic prices reached a short-term high and are in line with the previous year.
As the domestic scrap prices corrected in South Korea, retailers rushed to pile up on stocks. Even Hyundai Steel held its imported H2 scrap bids from Japan. Meanwhile, Tokyo Steel slightly increased the prices for domestic H2 scrap.
Due to the coming 10-day holidays in Japan, mills may be be tight on supply . Moreover, the weakening of the yen made Japanese scrap somewhat cheaper, but buyers are not showing interest.
At present, Turkey, the West Asian country, is still relatively more expensive than East Asia. Despite the fact that the prices of Turkey’s imported scrap have fallen, these are still costlier then Korean Weight A scrap.
However, the price decline in Turkey or hike in East Asian scrap can create a balance between them.
Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between SteelDaily and SteelMint.
Leave a Reply