Bangladesh: Scrap Market Remains Active With Recent Bulk Booking
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Offers for imported scrap to Bangladesh moved down significantly this week after observing some stability for over a week, SteelMint learnt in conversation with the market participants. Decent buying activities were witnessed in both Bulk vessel and containerized scrap market, as most steelmakers are looking to utilize the current low market levels to their benefit. The domestic market witnessed a fall in finished steel as well as local scrap prices.
A prominent Chittagong based Steelmaker booked a bulk vessel from a USA (west coast) based yard, comprising of 32,000 MT of Shredded scrap in entirety at USD 265/MT, CFR Chittagong, while the cargo is booked for November shipment. This is the 3rd Bulk vessel for ferrous scrap booked by Bangladesh steelmakers in just 2 weeks, as prior to this another 2 Chittagong-based mills had booked a bulk vessel each with mixed grade scrap, from the same USA (west coast) based supplier.
SteelMint's assessment for containerized Shredded scrap from Europe and North America stands in the range of USD 270-275/MT, CFR Chittagong, further don by USD 5-10/MT against last week.
Several Dhaka based Steel-mills were reported to book Australian Origin Shredded scrap in containers this week, at USD 270/MT CFR, while Shredded offers from Canada stood and USA stood at around USD 274-275/MT CFR, with few bookings being reported at these levels. Few UK based suppliers are however, still offering at a premium of USD 2-3/MT.
HMS scrap offers also dropped by around USD 7-8/MT from last week, with HMS 1&2 (80:20) from Brazil being offered at around USD 258/MT CFR Chittagong, while offers for UK origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) have now dropped to USD 255/MT CFR. HMS 1 from South Africa and Australia stood at USD 265/MT CFR.
P&S offers from Brazil stood at around USD 282-285/MT CFR, declining by another USD 8/MT w-o-w amid low demand.
Domestic Prices Fall Further - A further fall in local shipyard scrap was observed on account of the continued demand-supply gap. The yard scrap in Chittagong market currently stands at around BDT 29000-29,500/MT (USD 344-350) ex Chittagong, down by another BDT 1000/MT, with sales picking up slightly.
Due to drop in local scrap prices as well as slow sales in the finished steel market, many medium and small mills have reduced their prices of finished steel by around 3-4% in the last 10 days. However top mills in Chittagong are still offering at older prices. Only a renewed demand for finished steel post-monsoon from next month can help push the rebar prices up again.
