Japanese local and export buyers have been locked in a fight for steel scrap in the week to Wednesday October 20, pushing up prices across the board, sources told Fastmarkets.
Major electric arc furnace (EAF) mill Tokyo Steel on Wednesday announced it would raise its scrap buy prices by ?500-1,000 ($4.38-8.75) per tonne at some of its works starting Thursday October 21. This marks the second price increase by the mill in three days and the fifth rise in October so far."It is a really hard market for buyers - since Japanese scrap prices are so high, I think Taiwan and Vietnam buyers are now focusing on US-origin HMS scrap. I think they have no choice but to raise their purchase prices because Turkey deal prices are also...