South Korea's leading electric arc furnace mill, Hyundai Steel, raised its bid price Friday for Japanese scrap by around Yen 1,500/mt ($14/mt) from its previous bids on August 8, a source close to the company said.
On Friday, Hyundai submitted its bid for H2 at Yen 32,500/mt FOB, Yen 33,000/mt FOB for H1/2 (50:50), Yen 35,000/mt FOB for shredded and HS, and Yen 36,000/mt FOB for Shindachi Bara, sources said.
Offer prices for H2 prevailed at around Yen 32,500-33,500/mt FOB, sources said. "Most of suppliers with offer prices of Yen 33,000-33,500/mt FOB pulled out after Hyundai submitted its bid," a Seoul-based trader said.
A Tokyo-based trader also said Japanese traders still believe scrap prices to increase even further, and Hyundai might not be able to secure much volume.
"We believe the scrap supply will be tighter for a while, as Japanese mini-mills started to collect scrap after their usage of scrap inventories during the holidays," another Tokyo-based trader said.
Japan's leading mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, has lifted its scrap buying prices by Yen 1,000/mt for all works and a steel center effective from Friday arrivals.
H2 buying prices at its Utsunomiya works, north of Tokyo, are now Yen 31,000/mt.
S&P Global Platts assessed Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap export prices at Yen 31,500/mt FOB Tokyo Bay Wednesday, up Yen 500 from a week earlier.
