JAPAN STEEL SCRAP: Local mills reduce intake but low supply supports prices

Summer maintenance work at steel mills was continuing across Japan but reduced generation volumes and strong prices paid by South Korea were continuing to support export scrap prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 28.

On the lower-grade H2 material, reduced supply has been balanced by continued poor demand from Taiwan and Vietnam, sources said.
"I feel that the market is not so strong, but generation is also not so good, so steel mills in Japan cannot decrease their buy prices. Their product sales prices are not bad, so mills are also enjoying [decent] margins," a Japanese scrap supplier source said.
"Demand for scrap in Japan is reduced in the summer due to maintenance periods, but scrap generation is also lower in summer because Japan has long holidays in August," a Japanese trading source said.

H2-grade demand in South Korea was also limited, sources said, with bids this week heard at ?47,000 ($427) per tonne fob. The latest deal heard closed, one week ago, was for 10,000 tonnes of...

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