Weekly round-up: Global ferrous scrap market remains stable

• Turkish mill booked four bulk scrap cargo: After a Venezuela-origin deepsea cargo booking, Turkish mills have booked three more bulk cargoes.A Baltic-origin cargo was booked by a west Marmara-based steel mill comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20), which was sold at $444/t CFR for Oct'21 shipment.Another deal for Baltic-origin scrap was booked at $445/t CFR Turkey.
  
  
• Japanese scrap export offers subdued, trade yet to pick up: Japanese scrap export trade remained slow-moving for yet one more week. The discrepancy in bids and offers reduced market activities. On the other hand, good demand for high-grade scrap like shindachi-bara and HS in the external market was the key reason behind the weakening in H2 scrap export prices widening the gap with the high-grade category. However, Japanese dealers were hugely active in trading in the domestic market, due to excessive demand.
  SteelMint's price assessment for Japanese H2 scrap exports is still at JPY 45,000/tonne (t) FoB, unchanged w-o-w.
  
  
• Tokyo Steel lowers scrap procurement price by $5/t for Sept'21: Japan's leading EAF steel mill, Tokyo Steel, revised its scrap purchase prices for the first time in Sept'21 this week. The company decreased prices by JPY 500/t ($5/t) for one of its steelworks. After the correction, the company would pay a bid price of JPY 47,500/t ($433) for H2 scrap delivered at its Utsunomiya steelworks. However, price for Tahara works remains unchanged.
  
  

Source: Tokyo Steel
Prices in JPY

• Hyundai Steel books ferrous scrap from New Zealand: South Korean steel major, Hyundai Steel, recently bought 15,000 t of ferrous scrap HMS 1&2(80:20) at $475/t CFR. The company seems to be desiring New Zealand-origin scrap over US-origin material owing to rapid hike in freight charges due to sudden upsurge in Covid cases, sources informed SteelMint.
  
  
• Vietnam's imported scrap market remains sluggish: Vietnam continues to struggle, as pandemic-related curbs have brought economic activity to a near halt, especially in the southern region, where Ho Chi Minh city is located, resulting in partial lockdown and other restrictions. SteelMint's assessment for Japanese bulk H2 remained firm at around $470/tonne (t) CFR Vietnam, unchanged w-o-w.
  
  

Vietnam domestic ferrous scrap procurement price for H1 scrap stands at VND 11,200/kg ($487/t), while VND 10,900/kg ($474/t) is the price that has been settled for H2 grade scrap owing to strike in trading activities due to strict lockdown restrictions.

• Bangladesh mills continue to remain active in booking containerised scrap: Bangladesh's imported scrap market remained stable this week with limited deals for containers. Nevertheless, container unavailability and increasing freight rates have become areas of concern for containerised bookings. However, increased finished steel demand may raise bulk scrap inquiries. Buyers would probably resume restocking in a little while. SteelMint's price assessments for UK/EU-origin shredded are at $530-540/t CFR levels, mostly stable w-o-w.
  
  
• Pakistan's imported scrap market remains active on improved demand: Pakistan's traders were active in reserving fresh slots on increased demand. At present, high demand was witnessed from Pakistani mills, due to scarcity in scrap inventory. Remarkably, demand has increased mostly from the northern area (Punjab/Lahore). However, just a few mills are active at the moment and are anticipating clearer price movements. SteelMint's bi-weekly assessment for shredded scrap of UK/EU-origin stands at $525/t CFR Port Qasim, up to $3/t since the beginning of this week.
  
  
• India's imported scrap trade remains quiet: Indian mills kept back from making fresh bookings of imported scrap amidst disparity in bids and offers, high shipment costs, and unavailability of containers. Notably, the current imported scrap offers are not feasible for the Indian marketplace as the landed price of imported scrap is still higher than domestic alternatives, leading to several global suppliers preferring to deal with another South Asian country over India. SteelMint's bi-weekly assessment for UK/EU-origin shredded scrap stands at $520-525/tonne (t) CFR Nhava Sheva, down by $5/t w-o-w.