Japanese steelmaker Tokyo steel cuts domestic scrap prices by JPY500/mt ($4.56/mt) for all grades except #1 busheling (shindachi) for deliveries to Tahara works, effective Aug 3.
The electric-arc based steel mills revised bids for HMS #1 is at JPY51,200/mt ($466.89/mt), HMS #2 at JPY49,500/mt ($451.39/mt), shredded at JPY51,000/mt ($/mt), HS (P&S 5ft) at JPY52,000/mt($/mt) delivered Tahara.
Bids at Okayama, Kyushu, Utsunomiya, and Takamatsu remain unchanged.
Export offers for HMS #2 range from $425-$435/mt fob Japan as the market moved sideways.
Supplies of high-grade scrap remain tight, whereas low-grade supplies have eased. The gap between HS premium and HMS #2 is $120/mt, whereas the gap between #1 busheling premium and HMS #2 is $140/mt.
Scrap generation is heard to be very weak in the country currently and to top it off, Obon holidays will commence on the second week of August along with the unsettling covid-19 cases.
($1 = JPY109.66)