Appreciating Yen against USD and high global scrap prices have resulted in hike in bids.
South Korea’s leading electric arc furnace steelmaker – Hyundai Steel has raised its import prices for Japanese ferrous scrap by Japanese Yen 1500/MT (USD 14) wef today (23th Feb’18). Its latest bid put for H2 grade scrap was at JPY 35,500/MT (USD 332), FoB Japan against its last bid reported on 14 Feb’18 which was at JPY 34,000/MT (USD 318), FoB Japan.
New prices for other grades of scrap are assessed for H1/2 (50:50) at JPY 36,000/MT (USD 337), for both Shredded and HS scrap at JPY 38,500/MT (USD 360), Shindachi scrap at JPY 40,500/MT (USD 379) while Shindachi Press scrap at JPY 41,500/MT (USD 388) on FOB Japan basis respectively.
Prior to this, the steelmaker reduced bids for Japanese scrap successively four times on 22nd Jan, 30th Jan, 6th Feb and 14th Feb’18 respectively hitting bottom at JPY 34,000/MT for Japanese H2 scrap on FoB basis since mid of Jan’18.
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.
Recently Dongkuk steel also has increased imports prices by JPY 1000/MT(USD 9) for Japanese scrap. Its latest bid put was at Japanese Yen 35,500/MT (USD 332), FoB for H2 grade against its last bid reported at JPY 34,500/MT (USD 323), CFR.
Appreciating Yen against USD – Japanese Yen has appreciated to 106.9 against USD compared to 110 a month ago. Two months before it was trading at 113 against USD. Thus in a month’s time Yen has appreciated by about 2%.
Also hike in global scrap prices and deals taking place at higher prices in Turkey have strengthened global sentiments.
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