China's domestic scrap market has moved on an overall stable trend during the past week. Meanwhile, on account of the fluctuations in local finished steel prices, players in the local scrap market have been tending to stand aside from trading for the time being.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
HMS scrap | > 6 mm | Jiangsu | 2,580 | - | 378 | - |
Shandong | 2,330 | - | 341 | - |
In the past week, scrap prices in China's domestic market have generally remained unchanged. At present, mainstream quotations of heavy scrap in Jiangsu Province are in the range of RMB 2,500-2,600/mt ($366-380/mt), while the purchase prices of some mills in this province for shredded scrap have remained constant at RMB 2,600-2,700/mt ($380-395/mt). Meanwhile, the purchase prices of Hebei-based mills are still in the range of RMB 2,350-2,450/mt ($344-359/mt), with the scrap prices in the northeastern regions staying at RMB 2,450-2,550/mt ($355-373/mt).
Over the past week, affected by the fluctuating movement observed in the local finished steel market, players in China's domestic scrap market seemed fairly hesitant as regards commercial activity and preferred to stand aside from market trading. Certain individual mills adjusted their purchase prices and bought scrap depending on their own stock situations; meanwhile, a certain amount of confusion over quotations was observed in some regions. However, China's finished steel prices started to bounce back coming up to the end of last week, thereby giving support to the domestic scrap market.
As regards the international market, scrap prices in the Japanese market registered a continuous rise in the past week. According to the statistics, the average price of HMS II in Japan's three major scrap bases stood at Yen 23,654/mt ($247/mt) during the past week. On the export side, South Korea's Hyundai Steel again began to import Japanese scrap, with the quotation level at Yen 26,000/mt FOB for HMS II and the quantity at around 70,000-80,000 mt. As a result of the increased international price levels, it has become rare to see deals for imported scrap concluded in China, with the volume of scrap imports coming into China shrinking considerably.