Taiwanese ferrous scrap buyers continued to purchase cargoes at high prices this week, although buying momentum slowed toward the end of the week on returning supply of Japanese scrap.
Vietnamese buyers continued to focus heavily on Japanese scrap due to its large discount against materials from the United States' West Coast.
Vietnam
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
deep-sea bulk cargoes of steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam was $270-275 per tonne cfr on Friday February 28, up by $10 per tonne from a week earlier.
Offers were at $275-280 per tonne cfr Vietnam, while bids were at $270 per tonne cfr Vietnam. Negotiations were in a range of $270-275 per tonne cfr Vietnam.
Sellers of bulk scrap have not been offering actively to Vietnam because of higher demand in South Asia, where a number of bulk cargoes were sold to India and Pakistan.
There was a bulk shredded cargo offered by a major US scrapyard at $298 per tonne cfr Vietnam, but there was no interest from buyers.
Market sources in Vietnam said the highest...