Bangladeshi mills actively sought scrap amid improving domestic steel prices and demand. Chattogram-based mills opted for ship breaking scrap over imported. Easily availability of ship scrap along with minimal transportation cost attracted buyer attention on Monday.
Market sentiments were upbeat driven by a jump in steel and raw material prices in China. On Monday, Chinese domestic billet prices rose to CNY4,250/mt ($657/mt) ex-Tangshan including VAT, up by CNY110/mt. Higher billet prices in China and Southeast Asia could support bullish sentiments in Bangladesh, anticipate traders. For buyers in Bangladesh and Vietnam, offers for Japanese scrap rose by another $10-15/mt reaching $440-445/mt cfr Chattogram on Monday.
The Davis Index for containerized shredded, Monday, settled at $470.36/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $2.86/mt from Friday. Offers for the grade considering the freight variance against the Pakistan market were being quoted above $470-480/mt cfr Chattogram, however, no buyer was willing to pay high as most buyers opted for HMS deals.
A few mills were interested in bulk purchases amid elevated container freight charges and limited availability of containers. But offers in bulk jumped $10-15/mt from the US, Australia and Japanese suppliers, resulting in no trades being materialised.
Brazilian sellers continued exports to Bangladesh on higher bids. The daily Davis Index for US-origin containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) Monday settled at $440.71/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $4.46/mt; while the index for the grade from Latin America settled at $434/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $4/mt. A thin volume of HMS 1&2 (90:10) in containers traded at $440/mt cfr Chattogram.
Domestic steel prices trend up
Offers of ship scrap equivalent to P&S rose by BDT500/mt ($6/mt) to BDT42,000/mt ($495/mt) ex-works on Monday. Ship plate of 16mm traded BDT48,000/mt ex-yards, up BDT3,000/mt. On Monday, yards offered domestic ship scrap at BDT42,000-42,500/mt delivered mills.
For shipbreakers, scrapped vessel offers were in the range of $440-450/ldt, up by $10-20/ldt from the prior week. Rising supply and good quality encouraged mills to opt for shipbreaking scrap in Chattogram.
On Monday, domestic billet traded at BDT53,500/mt ($631.21/mt) ex-works Chattogram, up BDT1,000/mt from Friday.
Large steelmakers in Chattogram offered rebar at higher prices amid high input costs. Asking rates for rebar rose by BDT1,500-2,000/mt to BDT67,000-67,500/mt ex-works.
Rebar from medium-scale mills in Dhaka rose to BDT62,000-63,000/mt ex-works. Small-scale mills offered rebar above BDT58,000-59,000/mt ex-works. Prices of domestic scrap and billet have risen, which could prompt rebar makers to announce price hikes in the coming days.
($1=BDT84.75)