Ferrous Scrap demand from Asian millers have
been quiet from last week on high offers from Europe and USA. Offers to India
went down to 460-465/MT CFR Mumbai (Europe origin) due to poor buying interest from importers.
Further, Rupee in currency market, also about
to touch 5 months high (54.30 in mid December) and remain as low as Rs
53.97/USD. It has made imports dearer and prompted Scrap importers to remain
sidelines.
Meanwhile, US West
Coast ferrous scrap exporters failed to get any bulk orders last week as Asian
consumers stayed clear of higher-priced offers for bulk material.
Other West Coast sources reported bulk offers
to Chinese mills in a range of US$ 463-465/MT CFR last week. But, no bulk
deals have taken place as Chinese buyers expecting materials at US$ 460/MT CFR.
However, South Korean Hyundai Steel purchased
2 batches of HMS#1 scrap of around 70,000 MT from the US with the prices of US$
459/MT CFR, up slightly from the previous transaction prices of US$ 458.5/MT
CFR. Material will be delivered during May and June.
Meanwhile, it's predicted that Hyundai Steel
will start to purchase the Japanese scrap soon. It's said that the company may
buy around 100,000 tonnes of scrap from Japan.
At present, the major scrap exporters in the
US offer the HMS#1 scrap quoted at US$ 465/MT CFR to South Korea while Japanese
scrap suppliers' prices of HMS#2 scrap are at US$ 445-450/MT CFR.
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