On August 8, SteelOrbis reported that Japanese domestic scrap prices ticked up at mini-mills in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya to JPY 34,400-34,700/mt ($310-313/mt) for H2 scrap and JPY 39,000-39,300/mt ($351-354/mt) for shindachi scrap, all prices delivered.
Sources inform SteelOrbis that domestic scrap prices in Japan increased slightly again on support from the recent August Tetsugen scrap auction. Scrap buying prices in the same regions mentioned above are now reportedly at JPY 34,400-34,800/mt ($310-314/mt) for H2 scrap while shindachi scrap also increased slightly to JPY 39,000-39,400/mt ($352-355/mt), all prices delivered. H2 scrap prices widened $1/mt from the top of the previous range while shindachi scrap prices increased $1/mt.
Additionally, SteelOrbis has been informed that Tokyo Steel has increased its H2 scrap purchasing prices by about JPY 1000/mt at its Okayama plant and it is now JPY 34,000/mt ($306/mt) delivered. For perspective, the Okayama site trended at JPY 31,500/mt delivered for most of May and June and began to increase in July and is now closer to the JPY 35,000-35,500/mt ($315-320/mt) delivered price that has been prevalent through the past month at its Tahara and Utsunomiya sites.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published this week that Japanese steelmakers plan to raise crude steel production in the July to September period to 27.7 million mt, up 4.3 percent year-on-year. The increase in crude steel production is expected to provide further support to the Japanese domestic scrap prices.
USD = JPY 110.97 (Aug 8)
USD = JPY 110.93 (Aug 9)