Bangladeshi ferrous scrap buyers were cautiously buying this week as offers have gone up sharply. Many mills rushed for domestic scrap purchases which lifted prices. Domestic ship breaking scrap prices rose by BDT2,500-3,000/mt ($29-35/mt) in a week. High input costs forced medium and small-scale steelmakers to raise rebar offers. Large steel producers like BSRM and AKS maintained rebar prices flat to stimulate sales.
In other bulk markets, offers for US West Coast-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) were indicated to be above $360-365/mt cfr Chattogram with limited buying interest. A few offers were already at $350/mt cfr Vietnam on strong buying inquiries. With Turkish mills likely to accept $330/mt cfr Turkey levels Bangladeshi mills might revise bids to materialize deals. Japanese #2 HMS was offered at $345-350/mt cfr Chattogram.
Also, there is a lot of ambiguity about the second and third waves of COVID-19 in supplier countries. Mixed sentiments are keeping mills from closing deals at higher prices.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Thursday, settled at $359.17/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $0.42/mt from Tuesday. Most offers were in the range of $360-365/mt cfr Bangladesh against bids of upto $350-355/mt cfr Chattogram. A few mills walked away after booking shredded at around $350/mt cfr Chattogram from South America and Australia. Buying interest in container deals at high prices is very limited. P&S scrap offered at $370/mt cfr Chattogram with no buyers at those levels.
The weekly Davis Index for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $346.14/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $2.57/mt from Wednesday with a few offers at $345-350/mt cfr Chattogram from Australia and the US, differing by quality. Some mills are avoiding imports from the US and UK due to longer delivery schedules.
The daily index for Latin America-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $339/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $2/mt from Wednesday. Brazilian traders sought prices above $340-345/mt cfr Chattogram due to firm prices in their domestic market. Offers for Latin American HMS #1 rose to $345/mt cfr Chattogram Thursday against bids of upto $340/mt cfr Chattogram.
Domestic shipbreaking scrap equivalent to P&S offers Thursday rose to BDT35,500-36,000/mt ex-yard Chattogram, up by BDT500/mt from Wednesday, while HMS 1&2 (80:20) traded at BDT34,500-35,000/mt ex-yard Chattogram.
Billet and rebar prices by large steel producers like BSRM and AKS are flat at BDT57,000/mt and BDT54,500/mt ex-works, respectively. While most medium and small-scale producers sold rebars at BDT52,000-53,000/mt ex-works. Ship recyclers offered ship breaking plates at BDT40,800-41,000/mt ex-Chattogram yards.
($1= BDT84.77)