Indian Sponge Iron Export Offers Stable despite Limited Inquiries

Indian sponge iron export offers have remained fairly firm despite limited trade activities from Bangladesh.

SteelMint's price assessment for 80 FeM Sponge lumps in current week stood at USD 380/MT which was at USD 375-380/MT during last week; CPT Benapole port (land port of Bangladesh and India). On CFR basis, the offers are quoted at USD 395-400/MT, CFR Chhittagong, Bangladesh.

An exporter from Kolkata (East India) stated "there have been almost no fresh deals in the current week and in the last week small lots of lumps have been concluded at USD 390/MT, CFR. Smelters in Bangladesh are eyeing for scrap from either local ship breaking or Imported due to competitive offers," he added.

The steel makers in Bangladesh also confirmed that, the scrap is available at a substantially lower cost presently as opposed to sponge iron at USD 395-400/MT, CFR Chittagong.

According to them, domestic ship breaking scrap offers are hovering at 32,000-34,000 BDT (USD 385-410) ex-works & excluding local taxes. Further, Imported scrap offers are reported at around USD 365-370/MT for HMS 1&2 & USD 390-395/MT for Shredded 211 from US, CFR Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Bulk scrap imports crossed 1 MnT in 2017

As per port data for bulk vessels, Bangladesh has witnessed 44% Y-o-Y increase in bulk scrap imports in 2017 as against bulk scrap imports in 2016. The country imported 1,037,094 MT ferrous scrap in 2017 against 722,300 MT in 2016.

In 2017, Bangladesh recorded highest bulk scrap import in Nov'17. The bulk scrap imports totaled 177,950 MT with seven bulk scrap vessels arriving at berth in Nov'17 while in December five bulk vessels carrying 147,090 MT scrap arrived at Chhittagong port in Bangladesh. Thus the country witnessed 21% M-o-M fall in Bulk scrap imports.

Surprisingly, in CY16 the scrap volumes imported in bulk vessels were more than seven folds higher than bulk scrap imports in CY15. In CY16, Bangladesh imported 1707,686 MT ferrous scrap out of which 654,090 MT (38%) were imported in bulk and 1053,596 MT (62%) through containers respectively.