Having already increased its local scrap procurement prices five times since March 9, the main EAF-based steel producer in Japan, Tokyo Steel has continued to raise its scrap procurement prices further. Today, April 4, the company has announced another increase, of JPY 500/mt, in purchase prices for H2 and shindachi scrap for all its plants.
Tokyo Steel’s new price levels for H2 scrap are now in the range of JPY 64,000-65,000/mt ($522-530/mt), while for shindachi scrap they are at JPY 66,500-70,000/mt ($543-571/mt). All prices are delivered and effective from April 5. On March 29, dollar-basis quotations of Tokyo for H2 scrap were at $514-522/mt, while for shindachi scrap they were at $534-562/mt.
After falling to 125.10 to the US dollar, the Japanese yen has recovered to 122.56 to the dollar. While Japan continues to follow a loose monetary policy, the depreciation of the yen is also fueling inflation in the country. Nevertheless, according to a Reuters report, Japanese finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said that Japan will carefully watch foreign exchange market movement to avoid a bad weakening of the yen. Meanwhile, the production halts announced by Toyota Motor have caused a decrease in higher grade scrap generation in Japan, particularly shindachi, which is needed both in the local and export markets nowadays.
|
Plant |
H2 |
Shindachi |
||
|
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY /mt) |
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY/mt) |
|
|
Tahara |
65,000 |
+500 |
70,000 |
+500 |
|
Okayama |
65,000 |
+500 |
68,500 |
+500 |
|
Kyushu |
65,000 |
+500 |
67,000 |
+500 |
|
Utsunomiya |
65,000 |
+500 |
67,000 |
+500 |
|
Takamatsu |
64,000 |
+500 |
66,500 |
+500 |
$1 = JPY 122.56