Spot prices for Japanese heavy scrap dipped over the past week on reduced purchasing from South Korea, but market participants expect prices to strengthen again toward the end of the year.
Fastmarkets' price assessment for
steel scrap H2, export, fob main port Japan was ?26,500 ($251) per tonne on Wednesday October 14, down ?500-1,500 per tonne from ?27,000-28,000 per tonne a week earlier.
A South Korean steelmaker was heard to have bought H2 at ?26,500 per tonne fob on Wednesday, while bids from two other South Korean producers were heard at ?29,000 per tonne cfr for H1:H2 (50:50), which is equivalent to around ?27,000 per tonne fob for the grade.
Japanese H2 was on offer to Bangladesh at around $305 per tonne cfr, but a Bangladeshi mill source told Fastmarkets that the price was too high considering that containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) was available at $300 per tonne cfr Bangladesh and H2 is less dense than HMS 1&2 (80:20).
Both...