The downtrend in South Korea’s import scrap procurement prices has continued this week. Domestic steel producer Hyundai Steel has announced its bids today, May 11, for Japanese scrap with a significant price reduction. SteelOrbis has learned that the producer has received a lot of offers ahead of its bids, with the total offered tonnage at around 100,000 mt, excluding shindachi bara grades. South Korean producers have planned outages and local scrap flow is stable. Therefore, general expectations in the country are for the continuation of the current declining trend of prices. A South Korean source commented, “No revival is in sight yet. I believe we will see economic struggles in many countries before a recovery.”
Hyundai Steel has reduced its bid for Japanese H2 grade scrap to JPY 46,300/mt ($342/mt) FOB. The previous bid from Hyundai Steel for Japanese H2 scrap was announced on April 27 at JPY 47,800/mt ($356/mt - with the exchange rate at 134.31 to the dollar) FOB. Considering the fluctuation of the exchange rate, Hyundai Steel’s bid has indicated a $14/mt fall on dollar basis.
The buyer’s price idea for H1/2 (50:50) from Japan has been released at JPY 46,800/mt ($346/mt) FOB, declining by JPY 1,500/mt or $14/mt since April 27.
As compared to the levels on April 27, Hyundai Steel has also reduced its bids for shredded and HS scrap by JPY 1,500/mt ($14/mt) and JPY 1,000/mt ($10/mt) to JPY 49,300/mt ($364/mt) FOB and JPY 50,300/mt ($372/mt) FOB, respectively.
Following the Kanto tender closed with a significant price fall of $39/mt yesterday, May 10, Japanese producer Tokyo Steel also cut its prices by JPY 2,000-2,500/mt from the levels recorded on April 21 to JPY 45,000-47,500/mt ($333-351/mt), depending on the mill.
$1= JPY 135.36
