Over the past week, the sentiment in Turkey’s import scrap market has changed rapidly. While the week started with a more pessimistic mood, the deals disclosed to the market through the week signaled a firm stance in the deep sea scrap segment. As a result, the price decrease was only 0.6 percent or $3/mt week on week for prime HMS I/II 80:20 scrap. The month-on-month price rise is now 11.6 percent. It is observed that there is still demand from Turkey, while sellers are maintaining their offer levels unchanged. The disruption of shipments is a big problem, leading mills to secure tonnages instead of waiting for the next round of bookings. Turkey needs at least 20 more cargoes for December shipments.
- On the US side, at least one Ohio Valley mill has come out at up $50+/gt on shredded, up $40+/gt on HMS and P&S scrap, and up $20+/gt on prime grades, while another mill in the Southeast has also come out at up $50/gt on shredded scrap.
- South Korean mills have announced adjustments for ex-Japan scrap, with their bids significantly lower than the previous levels, supporting the idea that Japanese scrap is losing strength in Asian markets. South Korean mills have maintained their local prices. Hyundai Steel reduced its bid for H2 grade by JPY 3,000/mt ($26/mt) as compared to the levels announced on October 21 to JPY 51,500/mt ($452/mt) FOB.
- The reversal of the trend in the global scrap market, coupled with mounting uncertainty among market insiders with regard to the future market prospects amid recent developments in China’s steel market, have continued to encourage Japanese steelmakers to cautiously revise their bids for scrap. Accordingly, Tokyo Steel announced three cuts for bids for its Tahara plant with the latest down JPY 500/mt (around $4.4/mt) for H2 to JPY 57,000/mt ($500/mt) . Meanwhile, purchase scrap prices for other mills have remained unchanged. The local price level in Japan has still provided some support to Japanese exporters, but their export prices have nevertheless fallen much, as allocation has increased and overseas buyers bid lower.
- Similar to the general trend in the Asian market, Vietnamese buyers’ ideas for import scrap have also decreased significantly over the past week. Japanese suppliers’ offers for bulk H2 grade scrap have moved down from the $560-565/mt CFR recorded last week to $520-525/mt CFR. There are no bids reported from Vietnamese buyers but some buyers voiced indications at $510/mt CFR for this grade.
- During the past week, Taiwan’s import scrap market has decreased further both in the US and Japanese segments. Import scrap supply is good, market players stated, though there are some delays in shipments due to the ongoing shortage of containers on the US West Coast. In the current week, the prices fixed in deals for ex-US HMS I/II 80:20 scrap in containers to Taiwan were at $470/mt CFR, down by $10/mt from $480/mt CFR recorded last week. Meanwhile, offers from Japan to Taiwan for H1/2 50:50 scrap by bulk are in the range of $520-540/mt CFR, $5/mt lower on average as compared to the deals done at $535/mt CFR last week.
Fresh bookings to the US have broken the silence in the BPI market, attracting a lot of attention among market insiders. While ex-Brazil BPI has changed hands at a price lower than targeted by the supplier, ex-Russia material was booked at a price considered overvalued by most market insiders. Ukraine-based BPI suppliers have maintained their focus on sales of small-sized lots of higher quality material to distributors.
Following the consolidation in the latest scrap deal prices in Turkey, suppliers of shredded 211 scrap of European origin in containers to Pakistan have started to test the market with higher offers.
Scrap offers to Bangladesh remain at high levels, with some suppliers attempting to increase them further by the end of the current week, on the back of consolidation of deal prices in Turkey. Meanwhile, local rebar producers in Bangladesh have raised their offer prices, claiming higher input costs.