Taiwanese scrap importers have faced price increases over the past week as overall supply volumes have been limited and Japanese suppliers have been pushing prices up rapidly.
According to sources, a few deals for ex-US HMS I/II 80:20 in containers have been signed at $238-240/mt CFR in Taiwan this week, which is $6-7/mt above the transactions level late last week. Offer volumes from the US are still low, and so ex-US prices have space to move up further next week, sources believe. Moreover, Japanese scrap prices have increased much faster than scrap prices from the US.
Offers for ex-Japan H1/2 50:50 by bulk have been heard at $265/mt CFR and above late this week. “Taiwanese customers were facing large increases in prices from Japan - $15/mt this week,” a source said. Last week, the price level for H1/2 50:50 was $250/mt CFR. Suppliers managed to sell some volumes early this week at $255-260/mt CFR, but in the second half of this week offers have increased to not below $265/mt CFR.
After such a rapid increase, the gap between container scrap prices from the US and the latest Japanese deal price has increased to $20/mt, while in the April-May period it was $10/mt and below. Traditionally, Japanese scrap prices for bulk are about $10-15/mt higher than those for containerised ex-US scrap.
