The major EAF-based steel producer in Japan, Tokyo Steel, has announced a JPY 1,000-2,000/mt cut in its local procurement scrap prices except for its Utsunomiya plant where a reduction of prices was already announced earlier this week. Japanese sellers’ opportunities in the export market are shrinking as South Korean mills are staying away from imports once again, while Vietnamese buyers consider Japanese prices to be on the high side and are not showing much interest in scrap purchases anyway. As a result, the Japanese scrap market is under downward pressure, similar to the international market.
Following this new announcement, Tokyo Steel’s prices for H2 scrap have declined by JPY 1,000/mt on the upper end as compared to the prices shared by SteelOrbis on June 22, to JPY 53,000-54,000/mt ($393-401/mt) depending on the mill. But due to the slight appreciation of the Japanese yen against the US dollar, in dollars prices have increased by $4/mt on the lower end and moved down by just $3/mt on the upper end.
The Shindachi scrap price range of Tokyo Steel has also decreased to JPY 55,000-57,000/mt ($408-423/mt). The reduction of the lower end for shindachi scrap is JPY 1,000-2,000/mt. Again, the lower end indicated a $3/mt rise, but the upper end decreased by $10/mt due to the appreciation of the yen. All prices are delivered and effective from June 25.
|
Plant |
H2 |
Shindachi |
||
|
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY /mt) |
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY/mt) |
|
|
Tahara |
54,000 |
-1,000 |
57,000 |
-2,000 |
|
Nagoya |
53,500 |
-1,000 |
- |
- |
|
Okayama |
54,000 |
-1,000 |
57,000 |
-1,500 |
|
Kyushu |
54,000 |
-1,000 |
56,000 |
-1,000 |
|
Utsunomiya |
53,000 |
0 |
55,000 |
0 |
|
Takamatsu |
53,000 |
-1,000 |
55,500 |
-1,000 |
$1 = JPY 134.7