Posted on 18 Feb 2022
The strong uptick in Japanese scrap continues in South Korea and in the region, Kallanish notes. Leading South Korean electric arc furnace steelmaker Hyundai Steel raised its bid prices for Japanese scrap on Thursday by JPY 3,000-4,500/tonne ($26-39/t) in its weekly purchase auction.
Hyundai’s latest bid price for H2 is at JPY 58,500/t ($507/t) fob, up JPY 3,500/t from its previous auction on 10 February. Its bid for shredded scrap was at JPY 64,000/t, up by JPY 4,500/t. The mill’s bids for HS grade scrap and Shindachi Bara (loose) scrap were also at JPY 64,000/t, which is JPY 3,000/t higher from the week before.
The South Korean mill's much higher bid prices reflect its eagerness to book Japanese scrap. It raised its bid for Japanese H2 scrap by a total of JPY 6,500/t over the past two tenders.
Japan’s Tokyo Steel hiked its price by another JPY 2,000/t to JPY 57,000/t for H2 grade scrap trucked to its Utsunomiya steelworks, effective 15 February. It previously increased H2 scrap prices on 10 February by the same margin for deliveries to the steelworks.
In Vietnam, offers for Japanese scrap have also risen. Current offers for H2 scrap are prevailing at $560-565/t cfr southern Vietnam. Japanese scrap cargoes awarded by Kanto Tetsugen in its export tender on 9 February are believed to have been sold at a minimum of $550/t cfr Vietnam. "Japanese H2 prices are crazy," a regional trader says.
Source:Kallanish
