Bangladeshi mills decided to limit their containerized deals due to soaring freight rates on Monday. As per Davis Index, on the New York to Chattogram port route, average container freight rates have increased to $82.96/mt by $26.74/mt from a week earlier. Amid delays due to port congestion and excessive charges at both ports of delivery and loading, buyers opted for domestic scrap.
In some recent deals, sellers achieved higher prices as the buyers concluded faster delivery deals for their immediate requirements while most have already booked and may turn silent in the coming days.
Following softening bulk offers, Japanese traders lowered small bulk offers by $5-10/mt from the prior week on Monday. The arrival of monsoons in May-end could dent bulk buying interest further.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Monday, settled at $450.21/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $1.93/mt. Trades from the US were reported at a minimum of $445/mt cfr Chattogram while the highest was at $455/mt cfr Chattogram, as per sources.
The daily index for HMS 1&2 (80:20) from Latin America settled at $430/mt cfr Chattogram, down $3/mt following a drop in bids in the range $425-430/mt cfr Chattogram.
Indexes for US-origin, UK and Australia origin containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) on Monday settled at $437.14/mt, $428/mt and $438/mt cfr Chattogram, respectively, down $2-3/mt from Friday.
End-users eye competitively priced rebar
Most of the end-consumers of rebar and real estate contractors were in search of rebar from the semi-automatic mills because of its cost competitiveness.
Large steelmakers including BSRM, AKS and GPH announced a hike for rebar by BDT1000-2000/mt, now ranging between BDT66,500-68,500/mt ex-works. Large mills cancelled discounts amid recovering demand and costlier imported ferrous scrap. This pushed them away from buyers’ preference as most look for rebar from medium-scale mills in Dhaka at BDT63,000-63,500/mt ex-works.
Shipbreaking melting scrap equivalent to P&S remained at BDT43,000-43,500/mt ex-works while domestic HMS 1&2 (80:20) remained unchanged at BDT41,500-42,000/mt ex-yard Chattogram.
Domestic billet prices remained at BDT55,000-55,500/mt ex-works Chattogram. Most believe prices could remain unchanged for the next two weeks and then drop by at least BDT5,000/mt in April.
($1=BDT84.72)