Indian importers stayed largely away from booking imported ferrous scrap amid falling domestic steel prices. Mills faced margins squeeze as sales in both, the domestic and export markets are at prices below their expectations. A monsoon lull and fears over a resurgence of another COVID-19 wave added to the bearish sentiment in India. A wide disparity between offers and bids kept trading slow and sellers offered material in other markets.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Friday, rose by $1.5/mt to settle at $534.5/mt cfr Nhava Sheva. Offers were firm above $535-540/mt cfr Nhava Sheva, with buyers unwilling to accept these levels. From the prior Friday, the index rose by $7/mt on supply tightness in seller countries. The generation rate for HMS scrap has increased but the supply of prime grades remains low.
On weak domestic fundamentals, few buyers targeted prices below $520/mt cfr Nhava Sheva for shredded, with sellers unwilling to negotiate at those levels. The depreciated currency Rs74 against $1 from Rs72 levels a month ago kept the interest in imports low.
The Davis Index for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) on Friday was at $493.75/mt cfr Nhava Sheva, unchanged from a day and a week ago. Deals were limited for the US and UK-origin HMS in India as most were only interested in UAE-origin materials.
The daily index for UAE-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) inched down by $1/mt to $473/mt cfr Nhava Sheva. The index remained unchanged from June 25. For UAE-origin #1 HMS, offers were unchanged at $495-500/mt cfr Chennai.
The Davis indexes for P&S and #1 busheling were at $542/mt and $565/mt cfr Nhava Sheva, respectively, up by $5/mt from June 25. Turning scrap and West African HMS traded in thin volumes at $460-465/mt cfr Nhava Sheva.
In Alang, melting scrap prices on Friday were unchanged at Rs33,600/mt ex-yards, however, prices dropped by Rs2,200/mt from prior Friday. In Mumbai, rebar prices were unchanged since last Friday on subdued demand at Rs45,800/mt ex-works. In Mandi Gobindgarh, the index for ingot was at Rs42,400/mt ex-works on Friday, down Rs1,300/mt from a week ago.
In China, domestic billet prices dropped by CNY50/mt in a day to $4,860/mt ex Tangshan on Friday inclusive of VAT but were higher by CNY20/mt from June 25. Softening steel futures and weak demand impacted steel prices. Steel inventories continued to scale high. Iron ore prices for ferrous content 62pc neared $220/mt cfr North China, rising $5/mt. Asian billet and HRC export prices fell by $10-15/mt in a week driven by weak demand.
Subcontinent
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Friday, settled at $538.79/mt cfr Indian subcontinent, up by $0.78/mt; while that for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $500.94/mt cfr Indian subcontinent, up by $0.69/mt.
($1=Rs74.72)