Ferrous Scrap imports to India witnessed a drop of 15% M-o-M in Feb’15, making a total of 3.97 Lakh tonnes.
Market experts forecasted Scrap imports to exceed 5 MnT by the FY15 end. Though the fall in imports has disappointed market participants, imports at present are totaling to a good 4.7-4.8 MnT for FY15 (Apr-Feb).
Low bookings during Dec-Jan’15 owing to winters and New Year holidays have resulted in a drop in number of shipments this month which was vice versa last month, as India booked more and more Scrap during November in the fear of running out of stock during Dec-Jan.
Moreover, importers were quite cautious during January booking, as Scrap prices fell rapidly over USD 30/MT in a month’s time. Scrap price (HMS 80:20) on 1st week of Jan’15 was around USD 310-315/MT CFR India, which came down to USD 280/MT by month end (Europe-origin). Currently Imported Scrap prices are resting at USD 270-275/MT, CFR India.
If we talk about the import figures of Feb’15, there is a decent fall in imports from all exporting countries except Singapore, which showed an improvement of upto 60% (M-o-M), and got placed under top 5 Scrap exporting countries to India.
Whereas, UAE remained the highest Scrap exporting country to India among all, followed by South Africa & UK. Similarly, on Indian ports Ludhiana ICD continued to be the highest Scrap importing port followed by Chennai & JNPT port.
Scrap imports may rise in March/April
Scrap imports are likely to witness uptrend in the month of March and April’15, after observing number of trades that took place from Europe and US in February, during an ad-hoc price rise in Indian steel prices (in Mid-of Feb). Shipments from Europe & US generally takes a 35-45 days to port in India.
Indian Ferrous Scrap Imports in Feb’15 (Qty in MT)
 |
Indian Port | |||||||
| S.no | Exporting Countries | Ludhiana | Chennai | JNPT | Mundra | Kandla | Others | Total |
| 1 | UAE | 21,181 | 1,687 | 22,547 | 2,447 | – | 21,556 | 69,418 |
| 2 | South Africa | 25,276 | 3,689 | 5,765 | 3,287 | – | 18,491 | 56,508 |
| 3 | UK | 12,147 | 4,388 | 5,640 | 5,657 | – | 26,904 | 54,737 |
| 4 | USA | 3,137 | 1,013 | 4,577 | 295 | 22,574 | 9,304 | 40,900 |
| 5 | Singapore | 4,554 | 15,585 | 541 | 255 | 8 | 640 | 21,582 |
| 6 | Germany | 87 | 5,832 | 2,012 | – | – | 5,284 | 13,216 |
| 7 | Australia | 1,064 | 2,315 | 3,077 | 742 | – | 3,578 | 10,776 |
| 8 | Malaysia | 109 | 9,607 | 2 | – | – | 178 | 9,896 |
| 9 | Kuwait | 7,252 | 912 | 568 | 128 | – | 783 | 9,644 |
| 10 | Brazil | 1,693 | 3,343 | 1,341 | – | – | 1,999 | 8,377 |
| 11 | Others | 23,931 | 20,432 | 11,919 | 16,241 | – | 29,756 | 102,280 |
| Total | 100,433 | 68,804 | 57,990 | 29,052 | 22,581 | 118,474 | 397,333 | |
Source: SteelMint Research
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