Pakistan Resumes Bulk Scrap Imports After a Gap of Over 2 Years

Pakistan's Imported scrap market has further strengthened, on the news of the latest bulk cargo booking which comes after a gap of over 2 years.

In a recent booking, Mughal Steel, a prominent Pakistani Steel Manufacturer based in Punjab region, has been negotiating a bulk vessel of 30,000 MT of shredded scrap in entirety, from a USA based yard. Although price of booking could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report, sources claim the deal was concluded at USD 306/MT CFR Qasim. The shipment is likely for Mar '20. Prior to this, the last bulk scrap cargo which concluded to Pakistan was way back in Dec 2017.

It is reported that due to the recent capacity expansion by the steelmaker which will put its steel capacity to 1.1 MnT/Y which will operationalize in Apr'20. The company has booked bulk scrap for the first time since Dec'17.

In 2017, the steelmaker had booked 102,700 MT of bulk scrap, post which it has been relying on container bookings, which are more convenient to transport from the port to Plant location in Punjab, and hence has been more viable.

Container bookings to Pakistan have also been active for the last 10 days - after remaining on the slower side for several weeks prior to that, with many mills restocking under an anticipation of a further rise in global price trend, especially with the corona virus risk persisting, which may create a global steel shortage, driving overall prices up.

Bookings for Shredded scrap in containers have been concluding at USD 310/MT from UK/Europe origins and USD 308/MT CFR from US origins, for the last 3-4 days now.