Imported scrap offers to Pakistan remained more or less stable this week, while trade activities remaining slightly below average. Few deals were concluded to both Karachi as well as Punjab region buyers, as buyers remain watchful of global trend. Pakistan’s National Budget presented in the National Assembly earlier has been well received by the Steel industry on account of positive steps to reduce the input costs of steelmakers.
SteelMint’s assessment for Shredded 211 scrap from UK/Europe stood at $ 290/t CFR Qasim, a similar level as last week, however, the range of price in offers and bookings has widened. Few deals of Shredded from UK were reported at around $ 285-286/t CFR Qasim for up to 1000-1500 t each, while a USA origin batch was sold at USD 287/t CFR. On the other hand, a couple of small quantity deals to Punjab buyers were also reported at $290/t CFR level.
Most Shredded offers were in the range of $ 287-290/t CFR, while a few premium yards were offering at up to $292/t CFR levels. Buyers are mostly bidding at $285-286/t CFR levels.
HMS scrap offers in the market were very less, with South African HMS 1 at around 277-278/t CFR level, while some traders admitted that UAE scrap was still getting shipped by Dubai suppliers illegally, in spite of the UAE export ban, and few shipments have been arriving.
Domestic Market:
The domestic scrap witnessed no major changes in prices as compared to last week’s price. Even after the opening of the lockdown, many sectors which are customers of long steel are not working up to the mark, due to a smart lockdown and/or social distancing policies of the government in major markets like Lahore and Karachi, this impacting the steel demand.
With the latest budget presented, mainly three changes in the long steel sector have been observed
. Shredded scrap additional customs duty of 2% has been removed, while duty on HMS import remains unchanged.
. Steel mills holding tax has been cut from 5% to 2.5%
. Electricity prices had Rs.1 per unit addition tax liable to mills has now been removed.
Local scrap prices witnessed a slight uptick on availability issues and domestic scrap equivalent to Shredded offers stands at PKR 69,500/t ex mills inclusive of all taxes.
While deformed bar (G-60) remained stable against last week’s report in both Karachi and Punjab region at PKR 111,000-112,000/t, Ex-Sindh (Karachi) and PKR 112,000-113,000 /t Ex-Punjab/KPK respectively.
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