South Korea's leading electric arc furnace mill, Hyundai Steel, raised its bid price Thursday for Japanese H2 ferrous scrap by Yen 2,500/mt from its latest bid on June 27 to Yen 28,500/mt ($254/mt) FOB, a source close to the company said.
The steelmaker received a total of around 150,000 mt of offer volume and booked a total of around 60,000 mt at the latest bid price, the source added.
Offer prices were prevailing at around Yen 29,000-29,500/mt FOB, trading sources in Seoul and Tokyo said.
Hyundai had skipped bidding for the past two weeks due to a wide gap between offer prices and its buying interest.
"Japanese scrap price is increasing rapidly but still comparatively lower than US scrap prices, so the company was able to bid higher than the latest bid by other South Korean mills," a Tokyo-based trader said.
Offer prices for US bulk HMS I/II 80:20 are currently around $300/mt CFR South Korea, sources said.
Japanese traders are currently paying around Yen 28,000/mt FAS to collect H2 material to be exported from eastern Japan, up yen 500-1,000/mt from a week ago.
Japan's leading mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, raised its scrap buying prices but only at its Tahara works in central Japan and Utsunomiya works ,north of Tokyo by Yen 500-1,000/mt effective from July 20 arrivals.
H2 buying prices at both works are now at Yen 28,000/mt.
S&P Global Platts assessed Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export prices at Yen 27,500-28,000/mt FOB Tokyo Bay Wednesday, unchanged from the previous week's assessment.
