Chinese scrap exports continue in East Asia after a hiatus for about two weeks since the last booking was heard during the week of April 24, regional sources including South Korea and Taiwan said.
During the week of May 8, a leading Taiwanese mill is widely heard in the region to have booked a bulk cargo of around 1,000 mt of China-origin shredded grade at $250/mt CFR Taiwan.
This was $10/mt lower than the latest booking made by a South Korean mill during the week of April 24, regional sources said.
The Taiwanese mill is also believed to be in the middle of negotiating longer-term contracts with Chinese scrap suppliers.
On May 10, Japan's leading steelmaker, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing is also widely heard to have received 1,000 mt of China-origin scrap at its Kyushu works.
However, no detailed information regarding grade and price was available at this time.
These two Chinese scrap bookings are only for 1,000 mt because the steel mills involved want to test the quality of the cargoes, regional sources said.
Since the emergence of China-origin scrap in the Asian market three weeks ago, market participants are still puzzled about sustainability of Chinese scrap exports, Platts was told.
A Seoul-based trader said: "We need to wait and see a bit longer to decide if those China-origin exports are just for the short-term or not." He noted that there have not been many Chinese scrap deals in the regional market so far.
Leading South Korean scrap importing mill Hyundai Steel is also planning to carry out due diligence of Chinese scrap by visiting scrapyard in China, and is expected to make some small quantity bookings within this month, South Korean trading sources said.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the South Korean steelmaker submitted its bid for Japanese scrap at Yen 24,000/mt ($211/mt) FOB for H2 grade material, down Yen 1,000/mt from its latest booking on April 28, a source close to the company said.
Hyundai also submitted bids for other grades -- Yen 24,500/mt FOB for H1/2 (50:50), Yen 26,500/mt FOB for shredded, Yen 26,500/mt FOB for HS, Yen 27,000/mt FOB for Shindachi Barra, and Yen 28,000/mt FOB for Shindachi Press, the source added.
On Tuesday, S&P Global Platts assessed its East Asian bulk HMS I/II 80:20 scrap prices at $255-$265/mt CFR and Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export prices at Yen 24,500/mt Tokyo Bay, unchanged from the previous week's assessments.
