The major EAF-based steel producer in Japan, Tokyo Steel, has announced a JPY 1,000-2,000/mt reduction in its local procurement scrap prices. Domestic scrap prices in Japan are still higher than Japanese exporters’ export quotations. Demand for Japanese scrap is relatively slow in the international markets as international scrap prices continue to move down.
Following this new announcement, Tokyo Steel’s prices for H2 scrap have declined by JPY 1,000/mt as compared to the prices shared by SteelOrbis on Wednesday, June 15, to JPY 54,000-55,000/mt ($399-407/mt) depending on the mill. But due to the depreciation of the Japanese yen against the US dollar, in dollars prices have declined by $10/mt on both ends of the price range.
The Shindachi scrap price range of Tokyo Steel has also decreased, by JPY 1,000-2,000/mt or $10-18/mt to JPY 56,500-59,000/mt ($418-436/mt). All prices are delivered and effective from June 22.
While the Japanese yen has been depreciating significantly in past months, the country’s inflation has just hit 2.5 percent - a first since 2008. Since Japan’s main problem had been deflation for years, this strategy of higher inflation is expected to help the economy and revive demand to some extent. Inflation in Japan has risen mainly due to energy costs. According to Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda, “If we estimate inflation [in Japan] excluding food and energy items, inflation remains low at 0.8 percent.”
|
Plant |
H2 |
Shindachi |
||
|
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY /mt) |
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY/mt) |
|
|
Tahara |
55,000 |
-1,000 |
59,000 |
-2,000 |
|
Nagoya |
55,000 |
-1,000 |
- |
0 |
|
Okayama |
55,000 |
-1,000 |
58,500 |
-1,000 |
|
Kyushu |
55,000 |
-1,000 |
57,000 |
-1,000 |
|
Utsunomiya |
54,000 |
-1,000 |
56,000 |
-1,000 |
|
Takamatsu |
54,000 |
-1,000 |
56,500 |
-1,000 |
$1 = JPY 135.33