Prevailing bullish sentiments among market players in the steel market provided certain support to scrap prices in the local and import market in China. Demand is started to show some weakness recently ahead of the Labor Day holidays (May 1-5).
Average domestic HMS scrap prices in China are at RMB 3,474/mt ($523/mt) ex-warehouse, increasing by RMB 69/mt compared to April 21, 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 |
3,680 |
566.9 |
60 |
10.8 |
|
Liupanshui,Guizhou |
3,390 |
522.2 |
90 |
15.3 |
||
|
Nanchang,Jiangxi |
3,410 |
525.3 |
65 |
11.4 |
||
|
Handan,Hebei |
3,590 |
553.0 |
50 |
9.2 |
||
|
Anyang,Henan |
3,500 |
539.1 |
50 |
9.2 |
||
|
Zhangjiagang,Jiangsu |
3,480 |
536.0 |
90 |
15.3 |
||
|
Jinan,Shandong |
3,265 |
502.9 |
75 |
12.9 |
||
|
Average |
3,474 |
535.1 |
69 |
12.0 |
During the given week, domestic steel prices have moved on a firm trend, while market players mostly held an optimistic attitude towards prospect for the future market. Meanwhile, scrap resources arriving at steelmakers’ side declined over the past week, though the inventory has been at relatively high level. Most steelmakers were building up certain stock for scrap ahead of the Labor Day holiday (May 1-5), which exerted a positive impact on its prices.
In the import scrap segment, the deal prices have reached $495-505/mt CFR China on Friday, up by $5/mt compared to the tradable value earlier last week, as SteelOrbis reported earlier. Most offers for Japanese HS scrap have been stable at $515-520/mt CFR. But demand from China has started to weaken this week as mills have mainly finished purchases of import material ahead of holidays. At the other side, the number of offers from the major exporters has also been limited. Japanese suppliers have focused on sales to the local market, where demand has remained good. As a result, market sources estimate the workable level for import HS scrap at $490-505/mt CFR now.
$1 = RMB 6.4853