Following sharp fall in Japan’s domestic scrap prices, rising scrap inventories with EAF mills and declining domestic scrap prices in South Korea, Hyundai Steel has slashed imported scrap bids for Japanese scrap by JPY 1000/MT.
South Korea’s leading EAF steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has cut its import prices for Japanese scrap by JPY 1000/MT (USD 9). As per latest price update today (05th Apr’18), Hyundai Steel placed bids for H2 grade scrap at JPY 35,000/MT (USD 327), FoB Japan.
Last week Hyundai Steel lowered prices for high grades of Japanese scrap by JPY 1000/MT (USD 9) except H2 and H1/2 (50:50) grade. Hyundai didn’t place bids for H2 and H1/2 scrap last week over the large volumes of scrap inventories already available to them and accessibility of sufficient supply contracts.
New prices for other low grades like H1/2 (50:50) are at JPY 35,500/MT (USD 332) and for both Shredded and HS prices assessed at JPY 38,000/MT (USD 355) respectively. Its latest bids presented for high-grade scrap Shindachi Daichibara (SB) remained at JPY 41,000/MT (USD 383) on FOB Japan basis respectively. While bid Shindachi Press was not presented for this week over the ample inventories available in hand.
Hyundai Steel is one of the largest buyers of Japanese scrap. According to market participants company imports yearly around 500,000-600,000 MT scrap from Japan.
Many of the leading South Korean steel makers like Hyundai, Dongkuk, YK, and Posco have recently reduced domestic scrap purchase prices by the range of KRW 10,000-15,000/MT (USD 9-14).
JPY depreciates against USD – In last three days, Japanese Yen (JPY) depreciated by around 1.23% against USD. USD/JPY exchange rate stood at 107 today as against 105.7 on 02nd Apr ’18. However, Yen has depreciated by 2.2% in last two weeks’ time which was trading lowest at 104.7 against USD on 25th Mar’18.
Japan’s domestic scrap prices plunge – According to Japan Iron and Steel Association, domestic scrap prices plummeted for the first week of April in Japan. The average price index for H2 scrap decreased to around JPY 34,400/MT (USD 321) down by JPY 1000/MT on W-o-W basis. For Kanto region, H2 scrap price index assessed at JPY 35,300/MT (- JPY 1500/MT W-o-W) and for Central and Kansai regions price indices moved down by JPY 800/MT at JPY 33,500/MT and JPY 34,100/MT respectively.
Average EAF steelmaker’s scrap purchase prices from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya regions assessed at JPY 34,900/MT for H2 and at around JPY 38,600/MT for New cutting press respectively.
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