Export prices for Japanese steel scrap fell heavily over the past week with exporters reducing rates to stimulate fresh bookings, market sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 24.
Asian buyers shunned Japanese scrap offers last week, citing the fact that prices were too high, and instead concentrated on booking material from other sources such as the United States West Coast.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for
steel scrap H2, export, fob main port Japan was ?24,000-24,500 ($225-229) per tonne on June 24, down ?2,500 per tonne from ?26,500-27,000 per tonne one week before.
A deal for 10,000 tonnes of Japanese H2 scrap was heard booked to South Korea at ?24,000 per tonne fob for August shipment this week, while most offer prices for H2 were at ?25,000 per tonne and above, market sources said. Additionally, there were very few bids on a fob Japan basis heard for H2, sources told Fastmarkets.
"Buyers are not yet asking for H2 at ?23,000 per tonne fob because they're wary in a downward market," a Japanese...