India’s imported scrap market remained less active this week, as market insiders opt to wait and watch . The offers remained less workable for majority of the buyers due to price disparity when compared to domestic scrap.
In addition , most of the mills were procuring domestic material and not much active bookings of imported scrap were reported for this week.
- SteelMint’s assessment for containerised shredded scrap stands at $530-535/t CFR Nhava Sheva.
- UAE-origin HMS 1 offers are at $485/t CFR Nhava Sheva levels and that for UK at $480-485/t CFR.
- Australian-origin HMS is being offered at $475/t CFR Chennai levels.
“Market awaits further price correction and bookings will resume actively. The US prices are expected to drop for Turkey, following which the price disparity in India should narrow down,” said another reliable source.
Indian melting scrap prices remain volatile: Melting scrap prices witnessed fluctuations across markets. Slow finished steel trading forced steel mills to restrain production capacity which led to a correction in semi-finished steel prices in major Indian markets. However, scrap prices in the southern region remained stable on usual procurements.
SteelMint’s assessment for HMS is at INR 35,700/t DAP Mumbai, unchanged w-o-w. Similarly, prices for Jalna are at INR 35,100/t DAP, down by INR 400/t w-o-w.
On the other hand, sponge iron prices remained strong across markets despite price corrections in iron ore and pellets. Seasonal supply shortage resulted in prices moving north and measured supply by the plants along with higher offers continued to support sponge prices. SteelMint’s benchmark sponge P-DRI (FeM 80%) prices increased further by INR 700/t to INR 31,000/t, exw-Raipur w-o-w.
Rebar prices continue to rise: Increased semi-finished steel prices and improvement in rebar trade, have pushed the sellers to keep prices remain strong, sources reported. Market participants informed that rebar prices in the short term may vary owing to higher raw material prices and the shrinking conversion spread (from billets to rebar) due to which sellers are not willing to reduce prices despite dull demand in the spot market.
SteelMint’s assessment, induction furnace (IF) grade rebar prices in Mumbai stand at INR 49,600/t exw, up by INR 900/t w-o-w.
Leave a Reply