South Korea’s leading EAF steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has continued buying Japanese scrap with individual negotiation and has remained away from bidding for it. Now it is expected that Hyundai may not resume bidding for Japanese scrap until the export prices fall down significantly again.
Japan’s Kanto Tender average bids for September month showed that Japanese scrap prices are still strong and less likely to drop considerably in the short period, which were higher than expectation of South Korean EAF steelmakers. Moreover, Hyundai has suspended bidding for H2 for around 2 months period and possibility of resuming bids is very low anytime soon. Also, few participants remain apprehensive about possibility of steelmaker may not resume bids till the end of this year.
Hyundai Steel emphasized that Japanese scrap prices are too high and amid sufficient inventories there is no requirement of low grade scrap like H2 to company. It has secured considerable inventories from recent bulk contracts with USA and although Russian scrap supply is low it hasn’t affected much to the supply trends. The company continues buying with individual negotiations and even if they don’t place bids in spot market it would not effect on supply and demand amid enough contracts available in hand.
Last bids made for H2 by Hyundai Steel was at JPY 33,000/MT, FoB Japan around 2 months ago. While currently H2 prices in Kanto region are hovering at JPY 36,000-37,000/MT (USD 323-332) and in the Gulf region prices are at JPY 34,000-35,000/MT, FoB.
Hyundai Steel contracted scrap through individual negotiations last week – Hyundai Steel heard to have signed a contract for 50,000 MT comprising of high grade scrap like Shredded and Shindachi from Japanese supplier. In addition to this availability of around 20,000 MT domestic scrap per day from Korean suppliers kept the steelmaker away from imports.
Hyundai Steel cuts domestic scrap prices after 4 months – The Steelmaker cut domestic scrap prices at all works by KRW 10,000/MT (USD 9) after almost 4 months amid increasing inventories at Dangjin and Pohang works.
South Korean scrap inventories increases for last 4 weeks – Scrap inventories with 7 major leading steelmakers in South Korea was recorded at 987,000 MT (up 26,000 MT or 2.7% W-o-W), Specially Dongkuk Steel and Kisco Steel have observed rise of 30% and 15% W-o-W in their scrap inventories this week.
– Inputs from SteelDaily
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