Japan’s leading EAF mini-mill, Tokyo Steel has lowered its scrap purchase price further by JPY 1000/MT (USD 9) at all of its 5 works, as per the latest price circular. This is the third consecutive price cuts in a week’s time. The new prices for all grades shall be effective from tomorrow (8th Feb’20).
After the said price cut, the company will pay JPY 21,500/MT (USD 196) for H2 scrap delivered to its Tahara plant in the central region, while the revised price for H2 delivery to Utsunomiya plant in the Kanto region and Kyushu works in the western region is JPY 21000/MT (USD 191). For H2 delivered to Okayama plant and Takamatsu Steel Center, the price will be JPY 20000/MT (USD 182) and JPY 19000/MT (USD 173) respectively.
Interestingly, after the Japanese scrap had bottomed in Oct’19 from a seven-month downtrend, it had surged up by around JPY 3000/MT till mid Dec’19. However, post New year’s, another round of decline since Jan’20 has taken the price levels even below the Oct’19 bottom, while the present bids are lowest in the last 2 and a half years as per data maintained by SteelMint.
Notably, the price for higher grade “New Breaking Press A” scrap has declined by over JPY 4000-4500/MT in since JPY 27000-27500/MT levels in Dec’19, amid lesser demand for higher grades. With the global scrap market also in an ongoing downtrend, in addition to low domestic demand in Japan, there is little support to the Japanese scrap market at the moment.
| Scrap Grade | Tahara Plant | Okayama Plant | Kyushu Factory | Utsunomiya Factory | Takamatsu Steel Center |
| Special Class (H2) | 21,500 | 20,000 | 21,000 | 21,000 | 19,000 |
| First Grade | 21,000 | 19,500 | 20,500 | 21,000 | 18,500 |
| Second Grade | 19,500 | 18,000 | 19,000 | 19,500 | 17,000 |
| New Breaking Press A | 23,500 | 21,000 | 22,500 | 23,000 | 20,000 |
| Shredder A | 23,000 | 20,500 | 21,500 | 21,500 | 19,500 |
| Shredder C | 22,500 | 20,000 | 21,000 | 21,000 | 19,000 |
Source: SteelMint Research
Leave a Reply