Steel mills in Bangladesh stayed largely away from booking containers of imported ferrous scrap. Heavy rains, as the Monsoons reached coastal areas, kept steel trading slow. Elevated freight rates driven by container shortages and port congestion at the Chattogram port added to landed costs for mills.
Amid tight availability and firm offers, the Davis Index for containerized shredded rose by $0.89/mt from Friday to settle at $548.75/mt cfr Chattogram. Bids lagged at $540-545/mt cfr against offers of $550-560/mt cfr Chattogram on weak finished steel demand. Containerized shredded prices were above $535/mt cfr Qasim in Pakistan, and most sellers have shifted focus from Bangladesh to Pakistan.
The daily Davis Index for HMS 1 &2 (80:20) from Latin America, Monday, rose by $2/mt from Friday to $510/mt cfr Chattogram l, while the index rose by $10/mt from the preceding week. Offers for #1 HMS remained above $512-515/mt cfr Chattogram amid better demand in other Asian countries.
On Monday, the index for US-origin containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) remained unchanged at $520/mt cfr Chattogram. In a silent market, the indexes for HMS 1&2 (80:20) of UK-origin and Australia-origin also were flat.
In the domestic market, offers for ship scrap equivalent to P&S were unchanged at BDT47,000-47,500/mt ex-yards. Shipbreaking plate offers rose by BDT500/mt to BDT53,500/mt ex yards Chattogram on firm scrapped vessel offers of $560-570/mt cfr Chattogram for shipbreakers. Several small-scale mills were busy closing their books ahead of the fiscal year-end. Steelmakers have decided to sell off inventories amid a bearish monsoon outlook.
Sluggish steel demand in the construction sector kept steel trades very slow. Large-scale mills though offered rebar stable at BDT72,000-72,500/mt ex-works.
($1=BDT84.7)