Bangladesh: Limited inquiries pull down imported scrap offers

Bangladesh's imported scrap trade remained slow this week with prices falling considerably on a w-o-w basis. Bearish domestic steel sentiments and rising inventories with mills slowed down market activities. However, mini-mills continued to book small quantities.

Current offers for containerised cargoes

• Shredded from the UK/EU is being offered at $560-565/tonne (t), down by $5-10/t w-o-w. However, limited deals are recorded at lower prices.
  
  
• Around 1,000 t of UAE-origin, HMS 1&2 (80:20) were sold to $532/t CFR Chittagong basis, earlier in the week.
  
  

Bulk scrap offers move down

Many major mills witnessed an active bulk cargo booking 2-3 weeks back. Amid decent inventories, mills remained less active in putting up inquiries for fresh vessels. Bulk ferrous scrap import prices into Bangladesh have declined further, as per SteelMint reports. Offers for US-origin bulk shredded scrap are at $535-540/t CFR Chittagong, lower by $15/t w-o-w.

A US west coast-origin, mixed bulk cargo for around 20,000-25,000 t was heard concluded recently. However, the deal remained unconfirmed till the time of publishing this report.

Offers from Japanese suppliers remained low, with buyers less interested in Japanese cargo currently. On the other hand, Japanese suppliers too, are less likely to lower their offers further.

Dhaka-based mills lower rebar offers

Domestic steel prices observed a further decline on the back of slow consumption from end-users. Construction activities have slowed down due to the winter season.

• Dhaka-based mills lowered rebar offers further to BDT 70,000/t ($813/t) on an exy-basis, down by BDT 1,000-2,000/t ($12-23/t) w-o-w.
  
  
• However, major mills in Bangladesh are offering rebar (10-16 mm) at BDT 76,000-78,000/t ($886-909/t) exw-Chittagong, unchanged w-o-w.
  
  

Outlook

Market insiders believe that imported scrap prices have already edge down. Hence, offers are less likely to fall further during the winter holidays.