Weaker domestic demand and a number of traders in short-selling positions have led to a drop in Japan export scrap prices over the past week, market sources told Fastmarkets.
Lower offer prices from Japanese exporters resulted in increased sales activity from the country to South Korea and Taiwan during the week.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for
steel scrap H2 export, fob main port Japan, was ?23,300-23,500 ($216-218) per tonne fob on Wednesday March 4, down ?700-1,000 per tonne week on week from ?24,000-24,500 per tonne.
One large reason cited for the decline was key Japan scrap buying mill Tokyo Steel reducing purchasing prices at its Kyushu and Utsunomiya plants by ?500 per tonne on Wednesday - the eighth decline in prices since late January.
"The drop in Tokyo Steel's list price at Utsunomiya means that many more suppliers would like to export compared with earlier in the week," one Japanese exporter told Fastmarkets.
A second Japanese export source painted a gloomy picture of the market, remarking that most...