Imported Scrap Prices in Pakistan Decline; Limited Deals Reported

Imported scrap offers to Pakistan moved down sharply since the latter half of last week, after the fresh Turkey booking had initiated the global plummet in prices. However, many buyers continued to bid at lower levels than the present offers in anticipation of a further correction, keeping trade volumes limited. Domestic steel sales continued to remain slow, inhibiting active raw material imports.

SteelMint’s assessment for shredded 211 scrap from UK/Europe currently stand range-bound at USD 298-304/MT CFR, depending on origin of the material. Offers from Norway, Latvia and other North and East European suppliers were observed at around USD 299-300/MT CFR, while UK based suppliers generally offered at a slight premium, in the range of USD 303-304/MT CFR.

Few bookings for shredded scrap were concluded in the range of USD 300-304/MT CFR in the last couple of days, however many buyers are still bidding at significantly lower prices of USD 295/MT and even lower, in an effort to bring down the offers further.

No buying urgency from buyer’s side as well as lack of active bookings from major global importers like Turkey, have given an edge to the buyers for negotiating, however a source shared that sellers presently seem adamant at not going below the prevailing offers, under the current market.

 HMS offers too have continued on the downward trend, with UAE origin HMS dropping by over USD 10/MT on a weekly basis. HMS 1 super (no ci gi) was being offered at around USD 293-295/MT CFR Qasim, while the higher quality HMS melting (PnS) was reportedly sold at around USD 304-305/MT CFR.

 Domestic steel market unchanged – Offer price for most of the steel products in the domestic market remained unchanged this week, as steel sales did not observe any significant improvement. Local Bala Billet offers inched up slightly by PKR 500/MT on a weekly basis.

In the northern region, rebar’s average offer prices were reported at around PKR 105,000-106,000/MT, ex-works (USD 679-686), while southern (Karachi region) steel mills are offering at PKR 107,000/MT (USD 692) ex-works.