Tight supply coupled with decreasing inventories at steel enterprises has continued to provide a certain support to local scrap prices in China. Nevertheless, trading activity in the import market in China has remained quiet due to the continuing divergence between interests of sellers and customers. Despite no fresh scrap offers have been heard to China, market sources believe that the highest workable level for China would be at $540/mt CFR, $60/mt less than prices targeted by sellers.
Meanwhile, average domestic HMS scrap prices in China are at RMB 3,711/mt ($572.1/mt) ex-warehouse, increasing by RMB 51/mt compared to July 14, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
Average scrap prices in China’s main markets are presented in the following table.
Product name |
Specification |
Origin |
Price |
Price |
Weekly change |
Weekly change |
HMS |
> 6 mm |
Tianjin |
3,785 |
583.6 |
25 |
3.0 |
Liupanshui,Guizhou |
3,660 |
564.3 |
0 |
-0.9 |
||
Nanchang,Jiangxi |
3,695 |
569.7 |
125 |
18.4 |
||
Handan,Hebei |
3,815 |
588.2 |
15 |
1.4 |
||
Anyang,Henan |
3,735 |
575.9 |
90 |
13.0 |
||
Zhangjiagang,Jiangsu |
3,785 |
583.6 |
75 |
10.7 |
||
Jinan,Shandong |
3,500 |
539.6 |
30 |
3.8 |
||
Average |
3,711 |
572.1 |
51 |
7.1 |
Specifically, during the given week adverse weather conditions have exerted a negative impact on domestic scrap supplies, arriving in the spot market in China and concurrently, have encouraged local steelmakers to further bolster its scrap purchase prices to some extent. Despite, the steelmakers’ scrap consumption has decreased recently due to the production restrictions, scrap prices in the Chinese domestic market are expected to edge up further in the coming week.
$1 = RMB 6.4835