Posted on 23 Feb 2023
South Korean mills are trying to press down Japanese scrap prices, Kallanish notes.
South Korea’s Hyundai Steel on Wednesday bid for Japanese H2 grade scrap at JPY 51,000/tonne ($379/t) and H1/H2 grade at JPY 51,500/t. These bids are JPY 1,000/t lower than its previous bid on 2 February. The mill bid HS grade scrap at JPY 54,000/t, down JPY 2,000/t. These are on an fob Tokyo basis.
The Korean steelmaker's bid prices are much lower than the Japanese domestic scrap market, regional trading sources say. “I don’t think that they will be able to get any scrap at these levels,” a trader says. He thinks that Japanese scrap, like Turkish scrap, will rise soon.
Leading electric arc furnace operator Tokyo Steel continues to pay JPY 53,500/t for H2 grade scrap trucked to its Utsunomiya steelworks. The Japanese mill's procurement price has been unchanged since 10 February.
Source:Kallanish
