Pakistan’s imported scrap offers fell further by $10/tonne (t) week-on-week (w-o-w), due to limited trade seen in the last week. Market insiders expect that offers will come down further and hence, they have gone into a wait-and-watch mode. However, a few participants continued to place fresh orders for material needed for the completion of their big projects.
- Recently, a deal was concluded for 2,000 t of UK/Europe-origin shredded scrap at $497-498/t levels, CFR Qasim, down by over $10/t against the last deal concluded at around $505-510 towards the second half of last week, sources confirmed to SteelMint.
- Fresh offers from premium yards for imported shredded are being quoted at $500-505/t. However, no deal has been heard at these levels.
“Buyers are mostly waiting to see the change in price levels after Turkey’s next purchase,” a UAE-based scrap supplier said.
Domestic steel market sluggish:
The domestic steel market remained sluggish as demand slowed down in the last few weeks. On the other hand, steel prices decreased following a drop in imported scrap rates last week. Customers are reluctant to book new orders, on expectations of a further decrease in rates in the coming days, SteelMint understands.
“Scrap traders were earlier holding back deliveries but with prices coming down, they have started liquidating stocks which have slightly increased domestic scrap availability,” said a prominent scrap trader based in Pakistan.
Currently, local scrap prices are being offered at PKR 95,000-98,000/t exw-Punjab.
Outlook
Pakistan’s scrap market is likely to remain slow in the short-term as market participants are waiting for the upcoming national Budget scheduled next week.
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