Pakistan, which was focusing on import scrap purchases in containers for more than two years, has lately restarted bulk purchases of scrap from the US.
A deal for 30,000 mt of shredded scrap from the US West Coast was done at $306/mt CFR Pakistan recently, a number of sources confirmed. It is expected that the new trend will continue in the near future, taking into account the difficult situation in the Asian scrap market. “The CFR container price is increasing day by day due to the container freight tightness as many containers are stuck in China,” a big Asian trader has told SteelOrbis.
In the middle of last week, offers and rare deals for shredded scrap in India were at $295-300/mt CFR. Most sources believe that offers for bulk scrap in Asia will continue to rise due to higher freight rates and increasing competition among buyers.
Demand for scrap in containers in Asia has increased sharply recently, leading to at least a $20/mt surge in prices last week. Sources said that customers from Thailand have been ready to pay $245/mt CFR for ex-US HMS I/II 80:20 in containers. As SteelOrbis reported last week, deals for the same scrap were done at $240/mt CFR in Taiwan. Offers from the US have continued to increase this week, reaching $250/mt CFR Taiwan, but “from today buyers stopped following,” a trader said.