Bangladeshi mills booked a limited volume of containerized imported scrap. Most large steel mills stayed away from the market amid falling Japanese export prices. Early in the week, however, a mill booked a small bulk cargo from Japan. Japanese ferrous scrap prices have dropped by around JPY5,000-6,000/mt ($60-71/mt) depending on the grade, in the last ten days.
In Turkey, declining rebar offers by $10-15/mt pulled down bids for cargoes of US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) to $400-405/mt cfr Turkey. The fall in Turkey has fueled expectations of a further drop in South Asian offers in the coming days.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Thursday, settled at $437.5/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $5/mt. UK/EU and US sellers kept their offers firm, but bids declined by $20/mt from Wednesday.
The daily Davis Index for containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) of US-origin settled at $417.5/mt cfr Chattogram, down by $2.5/mt. Mills resisted offers of $420-425/mt cfr Chattogram for HMS 1&2 (80:20) and are waiting for prices to drop to $400/mt cfr levels to resume restocking. A few mills could also stay away from the market till the end of the Chinese holidays.
The daily index for containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) of Latin-origin settled at $423/mt cfr Chattogram with most mills looking for HMS 1&2 (80:20) in the range $400-410/mt cfr Chattogram. A few offers for HMS #1 from Chile were at $430-440/mt cfr Chattogram on Thursday.
A few yards on the US West Coast are quoting $450/mt cfr Chattogram, $415-420/mt cfr Vietnam forHMS 1&2 (80:20). A deal for shredded concluded at $430/mt cfr China.
Domestic steel under pressure
Prices for shipbreaking scrap equivalent to P&S were at BDT37,000-37,500/mt ($437-442/mt) ex-yards. Medium-scale mills in Dhaka continued to lower their base asking rates for rebar by BDT500-1,000/mt to BDT56,500-57,000/mt ex-works. End-user targeted prices below BDT55,000/mt ex-works on Thursday.
($1=BDT84.76)