Japanese ferrous scrap prices have fallen further while two South Korean mills -- Dongkuk Steel Mill and Hyundai Steel -- lowered their bid prices Thursday, trading sources in South Korea and Japan said.
On Thursday, Dongkuk submitted its bid price prior to Hyundai at Yen 24,000/mt FOB ($216/mt) for Japanese H2 for June arrivals, down Yen 3,000/mt ($27/mt) from its latest bid on April 19, a source close to the company said.
On the same day, following Dongkuk's bid, Hyundai also submitted much higher bid prices at Yen 25,500/mt FOB for H2 for June shipment, down Yen 1,000/mt from its latest bid on April 21, trading sources said. The steelmaker also submitted bids at Yen 26,000/mt FOB for H1/2 (50:50), Yen 28,000/mt FOB for Shredded and HS, Yen 28,500/mt FOB for Shindachi, and Yen 29,500/mt FOB for Shindachi press, they added.
While Japanese suppliers said Hyundai's bids were within the expected range, they were quite surprised by Dongkuk's low bid, Platts was told.
"Dongkuk's bid was far below our expectation. They might have challenged for lower prices, but we believe the actual booking volume the mill attracts will be limited," a Tokyo-based trader said.
Another scrap trader in Tokyo said that Japanese companies are mostly closed from April 29 to May 7 for Golden Week holidays (except May 1&2), and very limited actual trading activities are expected.
Japanese traders are currently paying Yen 24,500-25,000/mt FAS to collect H2 material to be exported from eastern Japan, down Yen 1,000/mt from a week ago.
Japan's leading mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, decided to cut its scrap buying prices by Yen 1,000/mt for all grades at all works and its steel center effective from April 27 arrivals. This is the company's sixth cut in April and total cut has reached Yen 2,500-4,500/mt. H2 buying prices at its Utsunomiya works, north of Tokyo has become Yen 26,500/mt. Other mini-mills have also cut prices this week by Yen 500-1,000/mt and some are limiting the volume of scrap to accept.
S&P Global Platts assessed Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export prices at Yen 26,000-26,500/mt FOB Tokyo Bay Wednesday, the midpoint of Yen 26,250/mt FOB is down Yen 750/mt from the previous week's assessment.
