Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) flagship Bhilai Steel Plant (SAIL-BSP) has sold over 32,700 t of secondary steel – defective secondary steel or “re-rollable steel” – Aug’21, SteelMint data reveals. The rate of offtake at auctions was high given the fact that around 35,000 t of material had been offered.
The material auctioned was mixed in nature comprising blooms, billets, plates, TMT bars, rails as well as steel scrap.
SAIL had conducted an auction from BSP in Chhattisgarh for defective steel products on 17 Aug. The bid prices for steel bloom dropped by INR 920/t ($12/t) against the previous auction conducted on 9 Aug.
The fall in bid prices was largely in tandem with the decline in spot steel prices. A total of 13,243 t of defective steel had been put up for auction out of which 95.47%, i.e. 12,644 t of the material got sold, while 599 t remained unsold.
At the 9 Aug auction, the share of the quantity that got sold out of the total material on offer was 91.91%.
Although prices in Aug fell slightly compared to Jul, SAIL secondary steel prices were recorded at over the INR 39,900/t level. High level of offtake on strong buying interest supported prices, SteelMint notes.
Rails auctions
On the other hand, SAIL commercial rails (52 kg and 60 kg) auctions witnessed sales of 11,800 t in Aug. Sales at an auction conducted on 21 Aug rose to 10,900 compared to just 900 t at the previous auction held on 11 Aug.
The auction had 10,600 t (60 kg) and 3,900 t (52 kg) of commercial rails going under the hammer. The entire quantity of 60 kg rails was booked at INR 42,100/t exw. Out of the total quantity of 52 kg rails on offer, buyers booked only 300 t at INR 46,500/t exw. Bids for 60 kg rails were INR 1,100/t higher than the previous auction conducted on 11 Aug.
Tata Steel scrap sourcing
Importantly, Tata Steel has started sourcing high-quality domestic scrap for its steel operations, especially at Tata-BSL. As SteelMint has earlier reported, the steel major is sourcing end-cutting scrap and the preference is for high-carbon blooms and rail. SAIL-BSP secondary steel auctions witnessed 50,000 t of sales in Jun and around 61,600 t in May.
The company has appointed suppliers to lift the material on its behalf and most of the sourcing is being done from SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant and other mills located in the Raipur belt.
Sources informed SteelMint that since Jun, the company has been sourcing 10,000-15,000 t of prime quality scrap from the region. So, a large quantity of domestic sourcing by Tata Steel, and that too high-grade material, is expected to boost scrap prices as well as sales at SAIL secondary steel auctions.
Leave a Reply