Having increased its local scrap procurement prices by $47/mt in total with its announcements on March 9 and March 14, the main EAF-based steel producer in Japan, Tokyo Steel has again decided to hike its scrap procurement prices further. Late Friday, March 18, the company raised purchase prices for H2 and shindachi scrap for all plants by JPY 500-1,500/mt ($4-13/mt).
Tokyo Steel’s new price levels for H2 scrap are now in the range of JPY 62,000-63,000/mt ($520-528/mt), while for shindachi scrap they are at JPY 64,500-68,000/mt ($541-570/mt). All prices are delivered and effective from March 19.
The demand received from export markets for shindachi scrap supports the price increase, as does international scrap demand in general. Also, it is known that some automotive plants such as Toyota, Nissan and Hitachi had halted production for various periods after the 7.4 earthquake in northern Japan. Toyota had already announced that they will be forced to cut their production by 20 percent for the April-June quarter due to the ongoing semiconductor supply crisis. These two developments will also impact the generation of scrap in Japan, while demand is still on the high side. At the end of last week, the SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Japan H2 scrap was still at JPY 63,500-64,500/mt ($532-541/mt) FOB, remaining stable week on week.
|
Plant |
H2 |
Shindachi |
||
|
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY /mt) |
Price (JPY/mt) |
Price change (JPY/mt) |
|
|
Tahara |
63,000 |
+500 |
68,000 |
+1,500 |
|
Okayama |
63,000 |
+500 |
66,500 |
+500 |
|
Kyushu |
63,000 |
+500 |
65,000 |
+500 |
|
Utsunomiya |
63,000 |
+500 |
65,000 |
+500 |
|
Takamatsu |
62,000 |
+1,500 |
64,500 |
+1,500 |
$1 = JPY 119.26