Although the Eid holiday officially ended on Tuesday, June 4, in Pakistan, most market insiders have not returned to work so far. However, those who have retuned, have reported a sharp fall in import scrap prices as seen in the occasional deals done.
More specifically, offers for ex-UK/EU shredded 211 scrap in containers have been voiced at $415-420/mt CFR, versus $435/mt CFR two weeks ago. Besides, according to sources, several deals for around 1,000 mt in total of ex-UK/EU materials have been signed at $416-418/mt CFR this week, as compared to the deal price at $432/mt CFR two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, more offers have been heard for ex-UAE scrap this week “amid the absence of trade in India”, sources said. In particular, at the beginning of the week offers for ex-UAE HMS grade scrap were voiced at $415/mt CFR Qassim, while by Wednesday, June 5, new offers have dropped to $398/mt CFR. According to sources, a deal for ex-UAE shredded scrap is reported to have been signed at $415/mt CFR Pakistan, though this information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
“Although the Eid holiday are officially over as of Tuesday, the market will resume fully only from next Monday. Besides, there were some exchange rate changes during the holiday, which will affect the prices,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
In the local market, offers for scrap equivalent to shredded have been voiced at around PKR 175,000/mt ($636/mt) ex-warehouse, down by PKR 3,000/mt ($11/mt) over the past two weeks. Besides, while offers for local 10-12 mm rebar of grade 60 from domestic producers have been reported at PKR 263,000-265,000/mt ($956-963/mt) ex-works this week, the tradable level has been estimated by local buyers at around PKR 250,000/mt ($908/mt) ex-works and even slightly below, down by PKR 5,000/mt ($18/mt) over the past two weeks.
All prices on Pakistani rupee basis include 18 percent VAT.
$1 = PKR 275.22