Pakistan: Imported Scrap Trades Remain Weak on Price Rally

Imported scrap offers to Pakistan have observed a sharp increase this week, mainly on the account of a global surge in prices after the recent Turkish deals, SteelMint learned from sources. Suppliers increased their offers amid limited availability of material. However buying activity for imported scrap has remained very weak in Pakistan this week as poor finished steel sales coupled with temporary shut down of a few furnaces kept buyers interest very low.

SteelMint's assessment for containerized Shredded 211 scrap from UK/Europe stands at USD 290/MT, CFR Qasim, climbing up by around USD 5-7/MT against the closing of last week, however not much buying has been concluded at the fresh offers, with the last major deals for shredded scrap reportedly being concluded at USD 285-286/MT. Few offers were also heard at USD 295/MT, CFR qasim levels.

HMS scrap offers to Pakistan remained out of the market from most origins, due to weak continued demand Few offers for HMS 1 (super) from Dubai were reported at around USD 280/MT CFR Qasim, while inquiries remained limited.

Local scrap prices up; rebar prices inches down - Last week, few Induction furnaces in Pakistan were temporarily shut down due to non-compliance of anti-smoke and pollution norms, thus further hampering the production levels, which are already low due to the seasonal gas load shedding in winters. As steel sales remain very low on poor demand, prices marginally inched down by around PKR 1000/MT W-o-W, while local scrap (eq to shredded) rose up on support from rising imported scrap offers.

In the northern region, rebar's average offer prices were reported at around PKR 104,000-105,000/MT, ex-works (USD 670-677), while southern (Karachi region) steel mills are offering at PKR 105-106,000/MT (USD 677-683) ex-works.