Japan's leading electric furnace steelmaker, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, said Friday that it will further cut its purchase prices for domestic scrap at two locations, effective Saturday.
It will reduce the buying price for all grades of ferrous scrap delivered to Usunomiya works north of Tokyo and its Takamatsu Steel Centre on Shikoku Island by Yen 1,000/mt ($9/mt).
This follows a larger price cut of Yen 2,500-3,000/mt ($23-27/mt) for all grades across its entire steel works and a steel center, which took effect Friday morning.
After Saturday's price cut, Tokyo Steel will pay scrap collectors Yen 22,000/mt ($200/mt) for deliveries of H2 material trucked to its Utsunomiya steel works, Yen 4,000 lower than the price on Thursday.
The Japanese EAF only started cutting its scrap prices this week after implementing hikes amounting to Yen 9,000-11,500/mt at it steel works since January 8.
The sharp fall in Japanese scrap prices started when Hyundai Steel sharply lowered its bid price by Yen 5,000/mt to Yen 24,500/mt FOB for Japanese H2 material on May 13. The South Korean mill further lowered its bid price for H2 scrap to Yen 23,000/mt FOB on Thursday.
Platts assessed H2 scrap at Yen 23,000-24,000/mt FOB Tokyo Bay Wednesday, down Yen 4,000/mt from the previous week's assessment of Yen 27,000-28,000/mt FOB.
