Posted on 25 Jun 2021
Domestic steel scrap prices across China have been gradually rising this month. Market insiders cite the tight supplies of scrap from the seasonal decline in availability.
By June 23, Mysteel’s steel scrap price index had edged up by Yuan 168.4/tonne ($26/t) from June 1 to reach Yuan 3,709.8/t on delivery and including the 13% VAT, or higher by Yuan 1,234.1/t on year, according to the database.
Scrap traders in regions south of the Yangtze River are struggling to secure additional scrap materials from local collectors amid the seasonal decline availability, Mysteel Global noted. The heavy rains and high temperatures always hamper the collection and sorting of scrap at this time of year.
Confirming the trend, as of June 17 steel scrap stocks at the 61 Chinese blast-furnace and electric-arc-furnace steel plants under Mysteel’s regular survey had declined for the third week, dipping by another 211,400 tonnes or 6.5% on week to reach its one-month low of 3.04 million tonnes.
“Now we’re taking wait-and-see stance due to the slower pace of sales in the finished steel market,” a scrap trader from East China’s Jiangxi province said. “Local steelmakers have asked for more scrap and have lifted their scrap buying prices – due to the high price of imported iron ore these days and the falloff in scrap deliveries at plants – but we don’t want to sell more as our stocks at hand are insufficient,” he added.
“I don’t think domestic steel scrap prices will rise markedly in July, as current prices are already higher compared with one year earlier,” a Shanghai-based market watcher predicted. “However, it’s hard to imagine the scrap market declining greatly either, given the firm raw materials prices and the lingering tightness of supply,” she commented.
Source: Mysteel
Source:Mysteel Global
