India: Imported scrap trades witness improvement, prices firm

Indian imported scrap market witnessed some improvement in buying activity this week, with few trades of Shredded scrap too getting concluded, in addition to deals of imported HMS, while offers remained mostly firm for most part, showing a slight uptick in the latter part of the week. Buyers are expecting slight price correction in near term on account of silent Turkish buyers putting some pressure on global sellers.

Shredded: SteelMint's assessment for shredded scrap from UK/Europe this week inched up by $2/t against closing of last week and stands at $285/t CFR Nhava Sheva.

A major steelmaker booked 4,000t of Shredded from UK in beginning of the week, at $280/t CFR basis, for early Aug shipment, while a couple of other bookings at around $282/t CFR were reported for Mundra and Nhava Sheva.

Shredded offers ranged between$283-285/t CFR for most of the week, and firmed at $285/t by latter half. Industry participants confided $282/t to be the workable price for now, while many buyers were willing to wait for prices to move down slightly.

"We booked our first batch of shredded scrap this week since April'20, while waiting for price to move down further before booking another batch" shared by a major steelmaker.

HMS: On the other hand, HMS offers did not show any uptrend this week. HMS 1&2 (80:20) from UK is being offered in the range of $248-250/t CFR, and buyers expressed interest at close to these levels, while Brazilian HMS 1&2 (80:20) stands at around $245/t, with few bookings getting concluded to Mundra port at this price level in the week.

Whereas, West African HMS 1&2 (80:20) was sold at $ 255/t CFR to Chennai based steel mills, in a few deals. To Goa and Nhava Sheva, the same was offered at $243-245/t CFR Goa and $238-240/t CFR respectively. Trades for cast iron scrap at $267/t CFR Goa was also reported this week.

Outlook: At a global level, USA Prime at West Coast have moved down, however, East Coast prices have moved up. Considering container bookings to India are mostly from East Coast itself, prices are not likely to be impacted sharply. While Baltic yards witnessing slow scrap inflow recently is somewhat countering the prices amid Turkish buyers' prolonged absence from market since over a week.

On the domestic front, finished steel sales remain subdued, while Alang shipyard melting scrap being available considerably lower prices after a recent drop in vessel prices, is more preferable among buyers.

Prices to Pakistan firm in recent deals: After few deals getting closed at $283-284/t CFR Qasim at opening of the week, Shredded scrap to Pakistan has witnessed numerous deals at $285/t CFR from UK, for rest of this week, with few premium suppliers offering at slightly higher prices by upto $3/t.