- Turkey mills resume bookings from the US.
- Japan scrap export offers drop.
- China scrap buyers quiet this week.
- South Asian scrap prices slightly up.
- Turkish mills resume bookings: A prominent imported scrap buyer resumed active bookings for Jul-end shipments. Prices continued to fluctuate in recent bookings for US-origin cargoes. A total of four deals were concluded throughout this week. Turkish buyers are likely to book more cargoes in the coming days for Jul-end shipments. SteelMint’s imported scrap price assessment for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) stood at $497/tonne (t), CFR Turkey, down by $2/t against last week.
- Chinese scrap buyers quiet: The gap between imported scrap offers and bids was still at around $30/t for the higher grade HRS101. Thus, Chinese buyers were quiet as it was not workable for both parties. Offers for HRS101 stood at $560-570/t CFR levels. The Chinese were busy enjoying the 100th year anniversary celebrations of the Communist Party on 1 Jul’21. Thus, trading activities stopped for some time. On 2 Jul’21, factories and yards resumed operations.
- Japan’s scrap export offers drop: Japanese H2 scrap export offers dropped this week, owing to lower bids from overseas buyers. Disparities in bids and offers kept some overseas buyers away from the market. On the other hand, Japanese suppliers were enjoying trading in the domestic market. Meanwhile, the major Japanese scrap buyers, China and South Korea, opted to wait and watch. As a result, no bids were received this week from the Korean mills. SteelMint’s assessment for Japanese H2 exports stood at JPY 48,800/t FoB, down by JPY 700/t w-o-w.
- Vietnam offers stable w-o-w: Bulk imported scrap prices into Vietnam dropped by $5-10/t vis-a-vis last week. Trading activities improved following a decline in offers. Nearly two to three bulk US cargoes were booked by Vietnam-based steel mills. Fresh offers for the bulk H2 were being quoted at $500/t CFR Vietnam, mostly stable w-o-w. However, few bids were even heard at $495/t CFR.
- Tokyo Steel scrap buying prices firm: Japan’s leading electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel mill, Tokyo Steel, announced its scrap purchase price last week after a month’s hiatus. The company increased prices by JPY 1,000/t ($9/t) for its three plants. The company is paying a bid price of JPY 49,000/t ($441) for the H2 for the Utsunomiya works. Strong domestic ferrous scrap demand in Japan resulted in the hike in bids.
- Bangladesh market turns quiet : The Bangladesh market turned quiet after aggressive bulk bookings last week. Around 4-5 bulk cargoes were booked from the US last week at average price levels of $535-540/t CFR Chittagong. Bangladesh buyers were interested in booking US-origin cargo as Japanese cargo remains out of reach due to high freight rates.
Container scrap offers were up marginally by $2-3/t this week. Buyers continued to book scrap containers in small quantities, to restock for the monsoon. SteelMint’s imported scrap price assessment for UK-origin shredded stood at $545-555/t CFR levels, up by around $3/t against last week. - Pakistan mills lift rebar offers: Pakistan-based steel mills increased their rebar offers by around PKR 4,000-5,000/t ($25-32/t) owing to a hike in imported scrap prices. Offers from all leading mills were hovering in the range of PKR 149,000-150,500/t ex-Punjab. The imported scrap market turned active with numerous deals struck last weekend. Around 20,000-25,000 t of shredded was booked by Pakistan mills at $537-540/t CFR Qasim. Fresh offers for UK/EU-origin shredded were being quoted at $545-550/t CFR Qasim, up by $10/t against last week’s closing.
- India imported scrap market sluggish: India’s imported scrap market remained quiet for yet another week. Traders and mills kept away from booking cargoes on falling steel margins. Meanwhile, huge disparity in bids and offers slowed down trading activities. July will remain slow for fresh scrap bookings as mills cut production. Due to less finished steel demand amidst lockdown restrictions, the market remained silent. A leading Indian steel mill booked around 2,000 t of shredded scrap in containers recently. The deal was concluded for UK/Europe-origin at around $540/t CFR Mundra, sources informed. Falling steel margins and production cuts kept scrap import bookings on the lower side. SteelMint’s imported scrap price assessment for UK-origin shredded stood at $540/t, CFR, largely stable on a weekly basis.
- Shagang’s scrap purchase prices untouched: China’s largest EAF steelmaker, Jiangsu Shagang Group, kept its scrap purchase prices unchanged this week too, for all grades. As per latest revisions, prices for HMS (6-10 mm) were at RMB 3,770/t ($584/t), inclusive of 13% VAT, delivered to headquarters. Tight material availability and rising prices of finished steel lifted scrap purchase prices.
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