Bangladesh’s imported scrap market remained mostly quiet in the absence of buyers. Meanwhile, the continued downtrend in imported scrap prices slowed down market activities. Additionally, industry participants anticipate that, in the absence of Turkish buyers, prices are likely to fall further.
The country’s containerized imported scrap buyers extended silence towards their fresh bookings. Volatile currency exchange rates, load shedding, LC restrictions and other issues impacted imported scrap trades.
Furthermore, floods in many areas in the country have impacted domestic transportation, construction activities and the availability of labour at mills.
Recent container offers
- Fresh offers of UK-origin shredded were heard at $505/t CFR, down $5/t w-o-w. However, buyers showed less interest in booking any container at these levels.
- UK-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) was offered at $480/t CFR, unchanged w-o-w.
“Most mills were out of the market to get a clearer picture, due to the slow finished steel demand,” said a reliable source.
Bulk booking absent this week
- On the other hand, imported bulk scrap bookings remained absent this week, after registering a few last week. However, offers for bulk US HMS remained at around $465/t CFR. No firm offers for Japanese scrap cargoes were heard amidst the steep hike in domestic Japanese scrap on tight availability.
Rebar offers range-bound, likely to drop
- Bangladeshi mills rolled over their rebar prices for the third successive week. However, offers may witness a correction owing to limited demand from the downstream sector.
- SteelMint’s assessment for domestic rebar prices stood at BDT 90,000-92,000/t ($947-967/t) exw-Chittagong, unchanged w-o-w.
- Secondary mills in Dhaka are quoting rebar at BDT 88,000/t ($925/t), unchanged w-o-w.
Outlook
The imported scrap trade is likely to remain slow in the near term, due to limited demand for finished steel. On the other hand, bulk buyers are restocking their inventory ahead of the winter season.
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