Hyundai Steel, South Korea's leading electric arc furnace mill, has maintained its bids for Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap, trade sources in Tokyo said Friday.
On Friday, Hyundai Steel submitted a bid for Japanese H2 at Yen 29,500/mt FOB and for Shindachi at Yen 32,500/mt FOB, unchanged from its latest bids on July 27.
Offers Hyundai received were believed to be at around Yen 29,500-31,000/mt for a total of around 80,000 mt, but most were above Yen 30,000/mt, trade sources in Tokyo said.
"We believe most of [the] traders won't accept Yen 29,500/mt FOB because some other South Korean mills are currently negotiating to buy Japanese H2 at Yen 30,000/mt or above," a Tokyo-based trader said.
He said many Japanese traders expect scrap prices to rise further, and are therefore not in a hurry to secure bookings for now.
Another trader in Tokyo said Hyundai has already secured over 100,000 mt of Japanese scrap with the latest two tenders, so the company might be not in hurry to collect scrap and kept its bid price unchanged.
S&P Global Platts assessed Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export price at Yen 29,500-30,000/mt ($266-$271/mt) FOB Tokyo Bay Wednesday, with the midpoint of Yen 29,750/mt FOB up Yen 1,000/mt from the midpoint of last week's assessment.
Japan's monthly scrap tender by Kanto Tetsugen grouping of ferrous scrap dealers around Tokyo, will be held on August 9 and market participants are waiting for the results to see the price trend, sources said.
The highest winning bid in last month's tender was Yen 28,110/mt FAS, S&P Global Platts reported previously.
