The import market for bulk heavy melting ferrous scrap remained sluggish in East Asia over the past week, regional trading and importing sources said Friday.
Importing mills are not willing to pay more for bulk HMS scrap prices and US suppliers are able to find higher paying markets such as Turkey for their bulk scrap cargoes.
Platts assessed its weekly East Asian bulk HMS 80:20 price at $170-$175/mt CFR Friday, unchanged from the week before. The implied midpoint was $172.50/mt.
"There is no movement in bulk scrap," a regional trader said Friday.
"Mills here cannot accept any price increase [for bulk scrap] because Chinese steel prices are low," he said.
Market talk of a bulk full HMS cargo was ordered at $189/mt CFR Indonesia cannot be confirmed, traders said.
A Jakarta-based trader said that a mill expressed interest in purchasing at this price for one cargo in its tender which opened last week. But he was not sure if any deal went through.
He also said this price was high and that "no one else would buy at this price."
Rebar mills in the region are typically buying either Chinese rebar or billet because they found it cheaper instead of running their electric arc furnace mills to produce these steel products. However, this mill is not producing rebar, he said.
A South Korean trader heard that two suppliers offered bulk HMS at $187/mt CFR and $189/mt CFR to Indonesia but these offers were eventually not taken up.
Russian-origin A3 grade scrap was booked last week at $153/mt CFR Korea, down from transacted price of $169/mt CFR in mid-October.
"It is very quiet," said a manager with a Southeast East Asian rebar mill. He had no idea where bulk scrap offer prices were this week.
His mill was only using local scrap which is cheaper because there are no freight costs involved. Malaysian mills are doing the same and are not importing bulk HMS, he said. Malaysian mills are also scaling down steel production because they are importing Chinese steel, he said.
Meanwhile, Japanese bulk scrap prices to Vietnam and Taiwan fell week on week, in contrast with the increase in the monthly Kanto Tetsugen tender which took place on November 11.
In Vietnam, two bookings were heard concluded this week for H1/H2 50:50 scrap from Japan at $163/mt CFR. This is $7 lower than a week earlier (equivalent to about Yen 14,800/mt FOB for H2 grade scrap).
Also, in Taiwan, bookings for Japanese H1/H2 50:50 scrap were heard ordered at $150/mt CFR, $10/mt lower from a week earlier (equivalent to about Yen 14,500/mt FOB).
South Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel booked Japanese scrap at Yen 13,700/mt FOB for H2 grade early this week, down by Yen 100 from a previous South Korean booking two weeks earlier.
As Hyundai's price is much lower than Taiwanese and South Korean booking prices, Japanese and South Korean traders said they believe that the volume secured by Hyundai was limited.
In Wednesday's Kanto Tetsugen tender, the highest-priced bid for Japanese H2 grade scrap for export through Tokyo Bay by January 15 was Yen 14,660/mt ($119/mt) free alongside ship, up Yen 160 on last month's winning result.
This would be an equivalent price of Yen 15,960/mt FOB for Japanese H2 grade scrap.
