Bangladeshi mills stayed away from imported ferrous scrap markets after the government extended the COVID-19-related lockdown by seven more days starting Monday.
Transport restrictions and the suspension of international flights have hampered businesses.
Laborers have gone to their hometowns to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan since April 14.
Still, suppliers from Latin America, North America, and the UK kept offers firm amid a dip in scrap collection rate and hopes of a strong domestic outlook for May and June. Few small-scale producers could shut factories to avoid losses with steel demand softening. Monsoon season will begin soon after Eid, weighing steel demand, especially in the construction sector.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded settled at $479.38/mt cfr Chattogram, down $3.12/mt from Friday. Offers for UK-origin containerized shredded were unchanged at $485-490/mt cfr Chattogram, with buyers staying away from the market. With previously booked bulk and containerized shipments in the pipeline, large mills have enough inventories for their melting requirements during this seasonal slowdown.
The daily index for HMS 1&2 (80:20) from Latin America settled at $458/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $1/mt Friday. Latin American yards continued to sell in their domestic market or have shifted their focus to the other subcontinental markets, especially India where bids improved amid domestic shortage compared to Bangladesh.
The daily indexes for US-origin, UK-origin, and Australia-origin containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled down by $2/mt to $461/mt, $451/mt, and $463/mt cfr Chattogram, respectively, amid extended silence from mills. Offers of HMS 1&2 (80:20) were at $460-465/mt cfr Chattogram, with bids of $450-455/mt cfr Chattogram.
Domestic scrap standstill
Offers for domestic ship scrap equivalent to P&S were unchanged at BDT46,000-46,500/mt ex-yards. On Monday, 16mm ship plates were offered at BDT52,500-53,000/mt ex-yards, while import prices for scrapped vessels were at $500-510/ldt cfr Chattogram. Recyclers stayed away from those levels which have lowered the generation of ship scrap.
Domestic steel holds ground
Small-and-medium-scale steelmakers cited better profitability for billets over rebars and thus opted to sell the former.
Domestic billet offers were at BDT60,500-61,000/mt ex-works Chattogram.
Large steelmakers kept asking rates for rebar higher by BDT10,000/mt compared to smaller mills in the country. A gap of BDT4,000-5,000/mt between bids and offers for rebar has hit trading.
($1=BDT84.5)