With buying activity having accelerated in Turkey, global scrap suppliers have continued to voice higher prices in offers to the Asian markets, in particular to Pakistan. However, Pakistani customers have continued just to book material for their urgent needs given the slow demand in the downstream sector.
Accordingly, this week import prices of ex-UK shredded scrap in containers in Pakistan have been voiced largely at $560-570/mt CFR Qasim, compared to $550-555/mt CFR last week. After several deals for around 10,000 mt in total of shredded 211 scrap ex-UK were closed at $555-557/mt CFR late last week, this week a few bookings for small lots have been fixed at $560-562/mt CFR. “Customers are still reluctant to pay, and somehow finished product sales are still stagnant and not going well, which is holding customers back,” a Pakistan-based trader told SteelOrbis.
In the meantime, current shredded 211 scrap offers from the US have been voiced at $548-550/mt CFR, up $3-5/mt over the past week. Ex-UAE HMS scrap offers have increased to $530-535/mt CFR, up $10-15/mt week on week, and market insiders expect further price growth amid the anticipated increase of freight rates from Dubai.
The local prices for 10-12 mm rebar of grade 60 in Pakistan have remained mostly unchanged at PKR 188,000/mt ex-warehouse ($1,073/mt). However, due to continuing currency fluctuations, dollar-based quotations have slightly increased by $6/mt over the past week. “Government construction projects have remained slow, keeping inquiries from end-users subdued, but we have already heard that some Pakistani mills plan to increase their rebar prices by around PKR 5,000/mt due to the continuous increase in input costs,” a market source stated. Besides, market insiders said that several domestic rebar manufacturers plan to reduce their production due to growing inventories amid weak sales.