During the week ending April 18, soft trends have been observed in some regions in the local steel scrap market in China, with prices in other regions moving sideways, while transaction activity in the overall market has been at low levels. Average scrap prices in China’s main markets are presented in the following table.
During the given week, with the finished steel and raw material prices declining, steelmakers have come under pressure to reduce their production costs and so have cut their purchase prices for scrap, negatively impacting steel scrap prices in the domestic spot market. Demand for scrap has not improved, remaining at low levels. Against the backdrop of the weak sentiment prevailing in the ferrous metal markets, it is expected that scrap prices in the Chinese domestic market will continue their downward trend in the coming week.
| Product Name | Spec. | Origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly Change (RMB/mt) |
| HMS scrap | > 6 mm | Tianjin | 1,700 | 247 | ↓100 |
| Liupanshui | 1,530 | 222 | 0 | ||
| Zhangjiagang | 1,700 | 247 | ↓130 | ||
| Handan | 1,700 | 247 | ↓110 | ||
| Nanchang | 1,750 | 254 | 0 | ||
| Anyang | 1,650 | 240 | 0 | ||
| Jinan | 1,800 | 262 | ↓70 | ||
| Average | 1,690 | 246 | ↓59 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.88