Japanese EAF-based steel producer Tokyo Steel has announced a new round of scrap purchase prices to catch up with rising global prices and to ensure supplies. This time prices for all five plants of the company have been hiked by JPY 1,000-2,000/mt ($9-18/mt).
The prices for H2 scrap at the Tahara Works and Utsunomiya have added JPY 2,000/mt ($18/mt), reaching JPY 46,000/mt ($423/mt) and JPY 44,000/mt ($405/mt) respectively. The increase for the other three assets is JPY 1,000/mt ($9/mt): with prices rising to JPY 45,000/mt ($414/mt) at Okayama, JPY 44,500/mt ($409/mt) at Kyushu, and to JPY 43,500/mt ($400/mt) for Takamatsu. All prices are delivered and effective from May 11. This is the first adjustment of prices by Tokyo Steel in May, but room for a further rise still exists, market sources believe.
The export market for Japanese scrap has remained calm on Monday as market sources are waiting for the Kanto tender tomorrow. Seeing sharp rises in steel and raw material prices in China and bullish global sentiment, another round of increases in ex-Japan scrap prices will be seen this week. Late last week, the reference price for ex-Japan H2 scrap was reported at JPY 45,000-46,000/mt ($414-423/mt) FOB.