South Korea: Hyundai Steel Cuts Japanese Scrap Purchase Price by USD 9

This week, South Korea's major EAF Steelmaker, Hyundai Steel has cut its purchase price for Japanese scrap amid low domestic market fundamentals in Korea as well as continued fall Japanese scrap price levels. Hyundai Steel has cut its bid by JPY 1000/MT (USD 9) against last week and its current bid for Japanese H2 stands at JPY 22,000/MT FOB (USD 212), in comparison to JPY 23,000/MT (USD 221) bid last week.

Bids for higher grades were also cut by similar margins. H1:H2 (50:50) from Japan was bid at 22,500 JPY /MT while Japanese Shredded and Shin Dachibara at JPY 24,500/MT. The price gap between all the grades remains unchanged.

Around 100,000 MT of Japanese scrap was reported to be have been bid by the company at these price levels. Market participants believe that this volume of material bid is less than expected, especially as no public tender were announced recently.

Japanese suppliers on the other hand were reported to find the fresh bid levels lower than the current market rates. In the latest Japan Export tender "Kanto Tetsugen" which concluded yesterday, the winning bid level has remained mostly firm M-o-M, at JPY 22,655/MT (USD 217), FAS, (FoB Price is generally USD 9-10/MT higher than FAS Price) significantly higher than Hyundai Steel's bid for Japanese H2.

In a span of one month, the Japanese H2 bids by Hyundai Steel have returned back to the previous low of JPY 22,000/MT during mid-Feb'20.

~Inputs from Steel Daily