Pakistan: Imported Scrap Prices Inch Down in Recent Trades

Imported scrap trades to Pakistan are reported to have picked up this week with bookings in containers being reported, even as offers from global suppliers continued to drop sharply on a weekly basis, SteelMint learned from industry participants. Although few participants believed that the prices may have finally bottomed out, the overall market is still cautious for making any large quantity purchase.

Domestic finished steel prices inched down, especially for the South (Karachi) based mills while domestic scrap showed improvement on increased buying activity this week.

SteelMint’s assessment for containerized Shredded 211 scrap from UK/Europe stands at USD 250-252/MT, CFR Qasim, down USD 8-10 against beginning of last week, while the prices have inched down by USD 3-4/MT from the closing of last week.

Amid active buying of Shredded from Poland and other European origins, few major yards in the UK are still reported to be offering at around USD 255/MT CFR, while few buyers are bidding below USD 250/MT levels to pull down the prices further.

October and November months should be very active for import of Shredded scrap as buyers look to restock before December, when cold weather in European countries results in the closing of many yards, driving the Shredded scrap prices upwards.

Trades of imported HMS saw a slight improvement, as few bookings of Dubai origin HMS were reported, even as the offers for the same are currently higher than Shredded scrap.

Few bookings Dubai origin HMS 1 (super) were reported at around USD 258-260/MT, while a deal for higher quality HMS (Sarya) was reported at USD 267/MT CFR this week.

Pakistani Rupee has stood mostly stable at around 156 levels against USD for the entire month of Sep’19, after seeing sharp volatility in the previous 4 months.

Domestic steel prices inch down, local scrap prices up  –The domestic market remained mostly stable this week, with prices for CC Billet and Bala remaining unchanged w-o-w, however, continued slow sales of finished steel, led to a slight decline in Rebar prices.

In the northern region, rebar average selling prices were reported at around PKR 110,000-111,000/MT, ex-works (USD 701-708) meanwhile Southern (Karachi region) steel mills have dropped their rebar offers to around PKR 110-111,000/MT ex-works, on par with the offers from the  Northern mills, after a long time.

Price for Local scrap eq to shredded increased by PKR 1000/MT against last week, as increased demand for scrap led to rise in trade activities. The Price currently stands at around PKR 64,000/MT ex-works.