Bangladeshi mills either placed very low bids or decided to stay away from containers trades. Domestic steel demand slowed on month-end. Along with high disparity between bids and offers extending the standoff, high freight rates impacted buying sentiments further.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Friday, settled at $435/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $2.5/mt from Thursday. The index dropped by $17.5/mt from Jan 22. Leading mills have ample inventory as they have booked large tonnages in bulk for February deliveries. UK/EU and US sellers kept offers firm in the range of $440-450/mt cfr Chattogram, but bids trailed by $15-20/mt .
Trading in containerized P&S and #1 busheling stayed paused amid a lack of buyers for these grades. Indexes for the grades settled at $443/mt and $466/mt cfr Chattogram, down $18/mt and $15/mt, respectively.
The Davis Index for containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) of the US-origin and Latin America-origin settled at $417.5/mt and $415/mt cfr Chattogram, respectively, down by $20/mt each, from Jan 22. Offers for HMS #1 from Chile were at $425-430/mt cfr Chattogram on Friday but suppliers refuse to accept trades amid strong domestic realizations. Australia and the UK origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) dropped over $15/mt from the prior week.
In the bulk market, offers for Japanese #2 HMS in small bulk dropped further around $410-415/mt cfr Chattogram, down $10/mt from the prior deal. The US-based yards quoted $450-455/mt cfr Chattogram for a mix of shredded and HMS 1&2 (80:20).
Indian mills offered Sponge at $350-355/mt cpt Benapole or $360-365/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $5-10/mt from the prior week. Drop in Sponge iron prices and Chinese iron ore lowered bids for HMS scrap on Friday.
Domestic scrap up, trades slow
The weekly index for ship scrap equivalent to P&S turned up by BDT750/mt ($9/mt) to BDT40,250/mt ($475/mt) ex-works. Domestic HMS 1&2 (80:20) index was up BDT500/mt to BDT38,250/mt ex-yards Chattogram. Friday, typically a lull day, saw a few yards offering domestic melting scrap at BDT38,000-38,500/mt ex-works.
Domestic billet traded at BDT49,500/mt ex-works Chattogram pulling the weekly index down by BDT250/mt Friday. The index for large steelmakers’ rebar, Friday, dropped by BDT500/mt to BDT64,500/mt ex-works. Despite squeezed margins, mills offered discounts of BDT1,000-1,500/mt to encourage sales. Medium-scale mills in Dhaka, however, sold rebar at BDT58,500-59,000/mt ex-works amid slow demand. Small scale mills offered rebar below BDT54,000/mt ex works to keep operations going.
($1=BDT84.75, JPY103.68)