Posted on 21 Jun 2017
South Korea’s leading electric arc furnace mill, Hyundai Steel, has raised its bid price Monday for Japanese H2 materials by Yen 2,000/mt to Yen 26,000/mt FOB from the previous week, a source close to the company said Tuesday.
Hyundai initially collected offers from last Thursday and was expected to submit its bid last Friday, sources said. However, the company pushed the bidding submission time back to late Monday, they added.
The steelmaker also submitted bids for other grades — Yen 26,500/mt FOB for H1/2 (50:50), Yen 28,500/mt FOB for shredded and HS, Yen 29,000/mt FOB for Shindachi Barra, and Yen 30,000/mt FOB for Shindachi press, regional trading sources said.
Hyundai booked a total of just under 40,000 mt at the latest bid prices, of which, a little less than 30,000 mt was H2, the source close to the company said.
Another South Korean EAF mill, Dongkuk Steel Mill, also started to collect offers from Tuesday and is expected to submit its bid Wednesday, a source close to the company said.
Japanese traders are currently targeting Yen 26,500-27,000/mt FOB, Tokyo-based sources said. “Hyundai’s bid is lower than our target but still not bad to accept for some traders short of backlog orders,” a trader in Tokyo said.
Japan’s leading mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing decided to lift its scrap buying prices by Yen 500-1,000/mt for all grades for Kyushu works in western Japan and Utsunomiya works, north of Tokyo, effective from Tuesday arrivals.
The price for H2 material truck delivered to its Utsunomiya works has now become Yen 26,500/mt. This is the second increase following those on Friday, totaling Yen 500-2,000/mt.
A Tokyo-based scrap trader said scrap deliveries to mini-mills have become slower over higher export prices.
“Distributors have started holding scrap in anticipation of further price rise. As a result, mini-mills have to lift their prices to secure sufficient volume,” he said.
S&P Global Platts assessed Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export prices at Yen 25,500-26,000/mt FOB Tokyo Bay on June 14.
The implied midpoint of Yen 25,750/mt FOB is up Yen 750 from the midpoint of last week’s assessment.
