Indian Steel Mills Turn Active for Scrap Imports; Bulk Bookings Reported
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Strong domestic steel demand, lowered global offers in last few weeks and high local scrap prices are influencing factors behind increasing scrap imports.
As per recent conversations with market participants SteelMint learned that, towards the closing of the last week a West India (Gujarat) based major steel maker has booked two more bulk Shredded scrap cargoes from USA. Although exact deal price could not be confirmed, it is expected that the cargoes were booked in the range of USD 370-380/MT, CFR Nhava Sheva.
Earlier to this, a bulk vessel of around 32,000 MT containing mix Shredded and HMS from USA was booked at around USD 365-370/MT, CFR last week. Thus, almost 3-4 bulk vessels for March shipments have been booked since the end of Jan’18.
Indian steel mills kept away from booking vessels during Nov’17-mid Jan’18 period and no bulk vessel was booked owing to high offers and tightened scrap availability amid winters.
Present offers for containerized Shredded scrap from USA are around USD 375-380/MT, CFR Nhava Sheva. Last week few trades were concluded for containerized Shredded at USD 370-375/MT, CFR level. Thus, the latest price assessment moved up by USD 5-10/MT against last week’s assessment.
Offers for HMS 1&2 (80:20) in containers assessed at USD 360-365/MT, CFR Nhava Sheva from Dubai and from USA heard at USD 350/MT, CFR. Few thin trades concluded for HMS 1&2 at around USD 345/MT from West Africa and around USD 340-345/MT from UK this week in India.
" Bulk cargo for pure Shredded scrap was hardly available in the market while a composite cargo from USA containing 60% Shredded and 40% HMS 1&2 was heard at around USD 377-380/MT, CFR Nhava Sheva. Offers for both containers and bulk have slightly gone up this week and may further inch up after Chinese holidays" - shared a market participant.
On the other hand, domestic scrap prices improved further by 200-300/MT on W-o-W basis which has resulted in buyers to prefer imported scrap over domestic. Currently, HMS (80:20) in Mumbai is assessed at INR 24,900/MT (USD 390) and that in Chennai is around INR 25,000/MT (USD 391) (Basic prices, GST @ 18% extra).
