Rapid declines in Indian imported scrap prices continued, reacting to almost halted trade because of adverse weather conditions, floods in the northern region and falling finished steel prices, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, July 12.
Sources said that “distress sale price earlier in the month had now been normalized” with ex-Europe containerized shredded scrap price quoted at $405/mt CFR, down from $410-415/mt CFR last week. A few deals for 500 mt and 1,000 mt of shredded scrap were signed at $405/mt CFR, but in general buyers lacked confidence in committing raw material purchases in view of negative fundamental of local market conditions.
Ex-Europe HMS (80:20) scrap was quoted at $392/mt CFR, compared to $408-410/mt CFR earlier in the month, but still failed to elicit buying interest.
“There are too many negatives—heavy rainfall and flooding, steady fall in finished steel prices, weakening of the local currency against the US dollar, sufficient local raw material availability, and buyers have no confidence in restocking even though scrap prices fell,” a Mumbai based trader said.
“Secondary mills are progressively reducing capacity utilizations and hence raw material demand too is falling. There is sufficient availability in the local market to meet lower demand levels and mills are not willing to bear risks of imports,” he said.