Bangladesh Steel Mills Resume Bulk Scrap Imports as Prices Fall

As per recent conversations with market participants SteelMint learned that, Bangladesh based steel mills have resumed bulk scrap imports amid low scrap inventories available with them and considerably falling global scrap prices.

Recently, two bulk cargoes containing premium grade of scrap sold at around USD 393-395/MT, CFR Bangladesh.

Since last two months imported scrap prices remained high amid winters and also over concerns of port congestion and increased freight rates, major scrap importers from Bangladesh remained less interested in booking bulk scrap cargoes but as scrap prices have shown considerable downward corrections now, steelmakers have started refilling stocks and resumed scrap buying activities.

Since last 2-3 weeks, global scrap prices are continuously falling which has resulted in increased scrap buying activities in major scrap importing countries like Turkey, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Pakistan. Imported scrap prices in Turkey have come down further by USD 6/MT this week after declining by around USD 10-12/MT last week.

Offers for imported Shredded 211 scrap in containers are at around USD 380-383/MT, CFR Bangladesh and few offers for HMS in containers from West Africa and Brazil heard at around USD 360-365/MT, CFR levels. However, Bangladesh scrap importers remained seeking for further fall in imported scrap offers.

Ship breaking prices remained stable in recent sales concluded –

Ship breaking prices assessed stable around USD 410/LDT for general dry bulk cargo, USD 430/LDT for tanker cargo and USD 440/LDT for containers respectively on CNF Bangladesh basis. However, market sentiments have shown slight weakening. In recent sales, 13,084 LDT tanker and 7,362 LDT Bulker fetched USD 438/LDT and USD 430/LDT respectively.

Bangladesh bulk scrap imports increase 43% Y-o-Y in 2017 –

As per provisional data total scrap imports both in containers and bulk to Bangladesh increased 28% Y-o-Y from 1.70 MnT in CY16 to 2.17 MnT in CY17.
In CY17, Bangladesh imported 1.03 MnT scrap in bulk cargoes as against 0.72 MnT bulk scrap imports noted in CY16. Bulk scrap imports to Bangladesh increased 43% Y-o-Y in CY17.