Bangladesh: Ongoing festive holidays keep mills away from market

Eid holidays kept the steel market silent in Bangladesh. Mills are quiet and away from the market. Offers have come down significantly in the last one month given the drop in bids and weaker steel demand.

• Fresh offers for UK-origin shredded in containers are at $610-615/t CFR levels, down by a further $5/t w-o-w.
• HMS from UK origin is being quoted at $600/t CFR levels.

“Before closing, the market softened last week. Subdued domestic demand kept the market slow,” said a prominent market source.

On the other hand, market sources expect offers to move up slightly, but not a sharp hike, due to the monsoon season as the next round of bookings will be for June-July shipments, SteelMint understands.

Bulk scrap market silent

The bulk imported scrap market remained quiet after around 5-6 bulk cargoes were booked towards the beginning of last month. Meanwhile, dull finished steel demand due to limited working hours and labour shortage during the holy Ramadan month kept scrap bookings slow.

Offers for US-origin bulk HMS are at $595-600/t CFR Chittagong, falling marginally by $2-3/t w-o-w. Bulk ferrous scrap import offers into Bangladesh remained largely stable for June 2022 shipments as recyclers are sold-out for May shipments.

 Major mills declare financial results for Mar’22 quarter

• BSRM has announced its nine months (July 2021-March 2022) financial results recently. The profit after tax in this period stood at BDT 3,038.38 million, up by BDT 452.26 million or 17.5% compared with BDT 2,586.12 million in the same period last year.
• GPH Ispat’s net profit was recorded at BDT 1,561.97 million in the July 2021-March 2022 period, up 36% or BDT 413.42 million compared to BDT 1,148.55 million in CPLY, according to the company’s release. The production capacity of the company gradually increased after the expansion, leading to a rise in sales and profit.

Bulk ferrous scrap imports fall marginally in April

South Asia’s leading bulk ferrous scrap buyer, Bangladesh, recorded 0.39 million tonnes (mnt) of imports in April 2022 compared to 0.41 mnt in the previous month, as per vessel line-up data maintained with SteelMint. The US remained the largest supplier of bulk materials to Bangladesh. A total of 0.19 mnt of shipments were recorded in April, up 27% from 0.15 mnt in March.

Rebar offers fall further

Domestic rebar prices fell further on less demand from end-users. Major mills have cut their rebar offers, giving heavy discounts. Interestingly, rebar offers have come down by over BDT 5,000/t ($58/t) in the last month.

As per SteelMint’s assessment, major mills are offering rebar (10-16mm) at BDT 83,000/t ($957/t) exw-Chittagong, including taxes, down BDT 1,500/t ($17/t). A couple of major mills are holding on to their offers, waiting for a clearer direction after Eid.

Currently, Dhaka mills are offering rebar at BDT 74,000-75,000/t ($853-865/t) exw, down significantly by BDT 4,000-5,000/t exw-levels against last week.

Few market sources opine that global scrap prices may regain some momentum from mid-May. However, clarity may be seen once markets reopen after the holidays.