India: Imported aluminium scrap prices continue to move southward

The Indian imported aluminium scrap prices continued to move downwards amid limited buying and selling activities, as well as the decrease in futures, according to sources.

A trade source has stated that there is sufficient availability of material from the Middle East, and transactions are taking place more frequently compared to the UK/EU. As a result, materials originating from the Middle East are becoming more economically viable.

Buyers in the market are also offering lower bids due to the ongoing depreciation of the Indian rupee (INR) against the US dollar, with the exchange rate currently standing at INR 83.3, at the time of reporting. This depreciation increases the costs for buyers, including higher transit charges.

In addition, a market participant informed SteelMint that sales of finished materials in the market have been sluggish, leading to a decline in orders for alloy manufacturers.

Meanwhile, multiple sellers from the western region are currently quoting different prices for aluminium Zorba grade scrap. The price variance between these sellers are around $30-40/t, leading to reluctance among buyers bids.

Market participants have observed significant fluctuations and disparities between bid and offer prices. Sellers are hesitant to sell large volumes as prices continue to show a downward trend.

Furthermore, the demand for imported silicon 553 has remained limited due to the limited sales of ADC12 in the market.

Domestic aluminium scrap market

India's aluminium scrap market remained stable against yesterday's closing. Tense scrap prices stood at INR 156,000/t, while utensil scrap prices were at INR 17,4000/t exy-Delhi (excluding GST). Market participants have indicated shortage of fund remains the concern and local demand is currently sluggish, prompting suppliers to hold their prices steady temporarily. Also, they are closely monitoring the price reductions implemented by key market players. LME aluminium futures inched down by 0.55% to $2,168/t at the reporting time.

Recent deals heard on CIF (wc of India) basis

• Around 50 t Taint Tabor (TT) HRB with 2% from Singapore were bought at $1,740/t CIF West Coast.
  
  
• Around 500 t UK-origin aluminium TT C/S were sold at $1,550/t, CIF West Coast.
  
  
• A container of US-origin Tense mix 5-6% was traded at $1,560/t CIF Mundra.
  
  
• Around 100 t UAE TT was sold at $1,865/t, CIF West Coast.
  
  
• Around 80 t Saudi-origin Trump with 8-10% attachment were sold at $1,725/t CIF Busan.
  
  
• A container of TT with 2% from Middle East was traded at $1,860/t CIF Mundra.
  
  
• Around 20 t Malaysia-origin talk scrap were traded at $4,275/t, CIF Mundra.
  
  

Outlook

Market participants are closely monitoring the situation and foresee the possibility of a modest downward correction in prices in the short term.