Indian imported scrap market continued to stay silent waiting for a decline in asking prices. A prolonged pause has distressed some traders to sell material. Prices have started to soften in most global markets. There was a lull in the domestic market due to the
harvest festival of Makar Sankranti. Also, the gap between offers and bids was wide with domestic steel prices still under pressure.
The Davis Index for containerized shredded, Friday, settled at $479.29/mt cfr Nhava Sheva, down by $2.59/mt from Thursday and $3.21/mt from a week ago. Most buyers stayed away from purchasing shredded, as offers were unviable. But some regular shredded buyers were interested in buying the grade at $470-475/mt cfr South India. The gap between bids and offers kept trading limited.
Domestic steel prices continued to fall and markets in some regions were closed. The gap between HMS and shredded scrap has widened to over $40-45/mt on a shortage of high grades from the usual $15-20/mt levels.
Most mills preferred to buy domestic scrap priced Rs3,000-4,000/mt lower than imported material. The landed cost for imported HMS 1&2 (80:20) offered at $420/mt on a cfr Nhava Sheva basis comes to around Rs32,500-33,000/mt delivered Mumbai mill, including import duties, freight, and port handling charges. On Friday, domestic HMS 1&2 (80:20) prices were at Rs27,500-28,000/mt ($376-380/mt) delivered Mumbai mill.
A few Dubai-based yards with a limited holding capacity looked sell off material and accepted bids $15-20/mt lower than their asking prices. The Davis Index for UAE-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), Friday, settled at $427/ mt cfr Nhava Sheva, down by $5/mt from Thursday. Some suppliers offered #1 HMS at $435-440/mt cfr Nhava Sheva, but bids were below $420-425/mt cfr Nhava Sheva on Friday. Mills are interested in HMS scrap at $405-415/mt cfr Nhava Sheva citing it to be a workable range, but yards refused to accept those levels. Some traders from the UAE were distressed to sell and offered #1 HMS at $415-420/mt cfr Nhava Sheva and mixed HMS at
$410-415/mt cfr Nhava Sheva. Indian mills could stay away from the bulk market.
Chinese steel prices dropped as the second lockdown in the steelmaking province of Hebei and harsh winter is leading to piled-up inventories. Over this week, Q235 150mm square billets prices in China remained unchanged at CNY3,810/mt ex-works Tangshan including 13pc VAT. Indian mills continued to target billet export offers at $580/mt fob India.
Subcontinent
The Davis Index for containerized shredded, Friday, settled at $476.01/mt cfr India subcontinent, down by $4.42/mt from Thursday.
The index for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $437.83/mt cfr India subcontinent, down by $4.29/mt. International freight rates continued to firm up on all South Asian routes as container unavailability persists. The shortage could ease with the Chines new year holidays slowing import-exports in China.
($1=Rs73.05)