China’s domestic steel scrap market remained firm last week, with Mysteel’s steel scrap price index stable at Yuan 2,576.6/MT (USD 363/MT) on delivery to steel plants and including the 13% VAT as of October 25, lower by a tiny Yuan 13/t on week.
The price of 6-8mm common-grade steel scrap in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu province was unchanged on week at Yuan 2,410/MT on October 25 on delivery and excluding the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel’s database.
The recovery in the price of billet in Tangshan in Hebei – the pulse of China’s steel market – has led several steel plants in need of replenishment to lift procurement prices for scrap. But sources said the mills were not at all generous, bidding only an extra Yuan 20-30/t to attract scrap suppliers, claiming that the narrower steel margins they’re suffering won’t allow them to pay higher prices for scrap feeds.
As of October 25, the price of Q235 150mm square billet in Tangshan posted a Yuan 10/t gain on week to reach Yuan 3,360/MT EXW and including the VAT.
Total stocks of scrap at the 61 domestic steel plants Mysteel monitors weekly comprising both blast-furnace and electric-arc furnace (EAF) plants continued to increase over the week, edging up by 40,000 tonnes or 1.5% on week to hit a seven-week high of 2.65 million tonnes. The stocks could last the steel mills for 12.8 days, or 0.9 day less than the stocks total the previous week, according to Mysteel’s latest survey published last Friday.
In the meantime, their active scrap deliveries after the mills’ frequent reductions in price since earlier this month have left steel scrap traders with insufficient stocks at hand, Mysteel understands, with one in Jiangyin city in Jiangsu saying he’s easing back on the pace of deliveries to mills to focus on collection.
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