Low prices for Japanese ferrous scrap sparked interest among buyers in Vietnam and Taiwan this week, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday February 14.
Vietnam
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for deep-sea bulk cargoes of
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam was $260-265 per tonne cfr on Friday February 14, down by $4-7 per tonne from $267-269 per tonne cfr
a week earlier.
Prices decreased over the week after Vietnamese mills made lower bids for bulk scrap cargoes from the United States West Coast because they were able to source cheaper Japanese H2 scrap.
At the same time, a recent
strengthening of the Turkish scrap market led to US sellers raising their offers.
This combination led to a dearth of offers or bids for deep-sea cargoes of scrap in Vietnam this week.
"We are not asking for deep-sea quotations because Turkey is paying a much higher price than Vietnam," a mill source in the Southeast Asian country said. "We are in no hurry to buy deep-sea material," he added.
Instead, Vietnamese...