Over the past week, influenced by the improvement in the Chinese finished steel market, China's domestic scrap market stopped falling and started to move on a stable trend, with prices in some regions increasing slightly. While uncertainty still surrounds the trend of the domestic finished steel market, the domestic scrap market is expected to remain stable in the short term.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
HMS scrap | > 6 mm | Jiangsu | 3,030 | - | 446 | - |
Shandong | 2,850 | - | 420 | - |
China's scrap maket has been basically stable in the past week, with purchase prices rebounding to some extent from traders in eastern China. Current mainstream quotations of heavy scrap in Jiangsu Province are at RMB 2,950-3,000/mt ($434-442/mt), unchanged week on week, while the purchase prices in this province for cut grade scrap remain at RMB 3,030-3,080/mt ($446-454/mt). In Hebei Province, mainstream purchase prices of steel mills for heavy scrap are at RMB 2,900-2,970/mt ($428-438/mt), while market prices for heavy scrap in northeastern China are at RMB 2,900-3,050/mt ($427-449/mt), remaining neutral week on week. Meanwhile, scrap prices in Hubei Province are at RMB 2,850-2,900/mt ($421-428/mt), also unchanged week on week.
After the recent slight decline in the domestic finished steel market, in past days upward movement has been observed in finished steel prices despite the weak transaction situation. As a result, the downtrend in the scrap market came to a halt and prices in some regional scrap markets have started to rise under such circumstances. Heavy scrap prices from traders in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are up by RMB 50/mt ($7/mt).
The current increase in scrap prices is mainly led by the increasing finished steel prices. While large and medium sized mills' purchase prices are mostly stable due to their sufficient stock levels, small sized mills and traders have raised their purchase prices slightly.
Meanwhile, activity continues to be weak in China's scrap import market, with ex-US shredded scrap offered to China at $420-430/mt CFR, and quotations of ex-Japan H2 scrap offered to China at the level of $370-380/mt CFR.