During the week ending May 16, local steel scrap market in China has indicated a soft trend, while transaction activity in the overall market has slackened and is now at low levels. Average scrap prices in China’s main markets are presented in the following table.
During the given week, some steel mills have temporarily closed or limited production due to the steel production restrictions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region for the One Belt One Road Forum (BRF) and also due to recent environmental protection measures, resulting in reduced demand and slack transaction activity in the scrap market. The reduced demand has contributed to the soft trend of scrap prices in the domestic spot market. Considering that the scrap market is still characterized by oversupply, it is expected that scrap prices in the Chinese domestic market will indicate a downward trend in the coming week.
| Product Name | Spec. | Origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly Change (RMB/mt) |
| HMS scrap | > 6 mm | Tianjin | 1,550 | 225 | ↓100 |
| Liupanshui | 1,410 | 205 | ↓70 | ||
| Zhangjiagang | 1,670 | 242 | ↓60 | ||
| Handan | 1,700 | 247 | 0 | ||
| Nanchang | 1,590 | 231 | ↓80 | ||
| Anyang | 1,490 | 216 | ↓40 | ||
| Jinan | 1,690 | 245 | 0 | ||
| Average | 1,586 | 230 | ↓50 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.89