Having held local and provincial elections on Wednesday, June 1, South Korea was out of the market for a day and will be evaluating the Japanese H2 scrap export prices now with expectations of a further fall in quotations in the coming days. “We are satisfied with the domestic scrap flow. Despite the decreasing prices, the flow is on the good side,” a South Korean mill commented, adding, “We were off yesterday in Korea due to the election but will know more soon and, yes, Japanese scrap export offers are likely to drop further, but by how much is for us to decide depending on the supply and demand.” In general, the South Korean scrap market seems very quiet and scrap prices have seemed to be rebounding for containerized material but the bulk market situation is as yet unknown.
As of today, June 2, Hyundai Steel’s domestic A weight scrap prices in its Incheon, Dangjin and Pohang plants are at KRW 632,000-645,000/mt ($507-517/mt), the same as Dongkuk Steel’s prices for the same grade. The producers cut their domestic scrap procurement quotations further this week by KRW 10,000/mt ($8/mt).
On the other hand, given the deals done by Bangladesh, indications for ex-US bulk HMS I scrap offers to South Korea are at around $485-490/mt CFR, softening on the lower end as compared to the $490/mt CFR recorded last week as an indication.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Japan H2 scrap has remained stable today at JPY 53,500-56,000/mt ($413-432/mt) FOB, lower by $8-9/mt week on week due to the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar.
$1 = KRW 1,246.7
$1 = JPY 129.67