Daily Steel News - 19 Mar 09

EU’s scrap market weakens
EU’s scrap market has weakened in line with sluggish finished product market. Presently, UK’s ports and Rotterdam offer FOB US$205~$210/ton and FOB US$210~$215/ton for H1 & H2 (80:20) mixed scarp, which are US$5~10/ton lower than last week. Besides, France and Germany quote CIF US$225~$230/ton for shredded scarp, which is same as last week.

American scrap export market stagnates
With the exit of the Far Eastern suppliers, Turkey’s mills gradually fading out of the U.S. steel scrap market to the CIS market. The U.S.’ scrap processing plants are facing the problem of digesting the high inventory. In addition, the U.S. steelmakers have cut the production by 50 percent; exporters are currently in a worrying situation as foreign demand is very low. Currently, the U.S. east coast quotation of shredded steel scrap exports to Turkey is US$220/ton CFR Turkey, but Turkey buyers still seems look forward to a lower price on the transaction.

Korea buys scrap from Japan
Dongkok Steel, SeAH Besteel and Posco started to purchase Japanese scrap in March, to be delivered in March and April. Japanese H2 scrap price was at FOB ￥17,800~18,200/ton at the beginning of March while the new scrap price was ￥20,000~21,000/ton. The scrap prices for H2 and new were 290,000~30,000 won/ton and 330,000~350,000 won/ton, respectively, 70,000 won/ton lower than Korean domestic market price. In view of the exchange trend, it is possible that the price will continue to fall.

Japanese H2 scrap average prices down
HMS2 scrap average price has dropped by ￥1,522/ton to ￥16,288/ton in the Kanto region, middle part, and Kansai region.Among them, H2 scrap price dropped by ￥2,333/ton to ￥16,917/ton in the Kanto region; H2 scrap price at ￥15,380/ton in the middle part, down by ￥900/ton; ￥16,567/ton in the Kansai region, down by ￥1,333/ton compared to last week.