The largest South Korean scrap importer Hyundai Steel has decided to postpone its next round of bidding for Japanese scrap this week, according to market sources. The main reason behind this step is weakening finished steel demand in South Korea and in its major sales markets, which led to production cuts, and, as a result, to lower scrap consumption. The producer will focus on local scrap purchases in the near future as prices in the domestic market are going down.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, last week Hyundai Steel announced its bid at JPY 21,000/mt ($195/mt) FOB, and more than 30,000 mt of H2 scrap from Japan were sold at this level. At the moment, the tradable value has already declined to JPY 20,000-20,500/mt ($186-190/mt) FOB with minimal tonnage traded at this range. Japanese exporters have been suffering from a stronger yen against the dollar recently. As a result, the export price has decreased by JPY 500-1,000/mt from last week, resulting in just a $0.5-3.5/mt reduction in the dollar price. The outlook for the Japanese export scrap market for the near future is still bearish.
$1 = JPY 107.515