Japanese export steel scrap prices have jumped in the week to Wednesday May 13 following an active week of trading, market sources told Fastmarkets.
Prices in the Japan market were buoyed firstly by a rise in the Kanto tender sales early on Tuesday and then again by much higher deals closed into South Korea later in the day.
South Korean electric arc furnace (EAF) mills are seeing greater long steel demand with construction projects restarting following an easing of the country's Covid-19 lockdown. This has
revived scrap demand both in the Korean local and import market.
One South Korean mill booked 50,000 tonnes of Japanese H2 and H1:H2 (50:50) scrap at ?23,000 ($214) per tonne fob for H2 on Tuesday, Fastmarkets heard. The tonnage is larger than the volume usually procured by this mill from Japan in a single transaction.
The same mill also this week booked 30,000 tonnes of Australian scrap for an HMS 1&2...