The highest bid in Tuesday's monthly auction for Japanese H2 grade ferrous scrap for export from Tokyo Bay by end October was up Yen 620/mt ($6/mt) from last month's highest bid, auction organizer Kanto Tetsugen said.
The winning bid was Yen 32,230/mt ($295/mt) free alongside ship and the runner-up was Yen 32,220/mt FAS, both for 10,000 mt.
The auction attracted 19 bids for a total of 130,000 mt of scrap. The average bid price was Yen 31,634/mt FAS.
A Kanto Tetsugen official said both the number of bids and the volume received were lower than usual.
"Some members might be just monitoring market trends," the official said.
A Tokyo-based scrap trader said the result was within expectations and noted that the winning bids were equivalent to Yen 33,000-33,200/mt FOB.
"This is slightly above the latest booking by South Korea's Hyundai Steel and last week, a Vietnamese mill booked Japanese H2 at higher prices, so it seems the winning bids are very close to current export levels," he said.
Hyundai Steel placed its bid last Friday at Yen 32,500/mt FOB for Japanese H2, while several Japanese traders said they heard a Vietnamese mill had booked 5,000 mt cargo of Japan-origin H2 at $337-$338/mt CFR, equivalent to Yen 33,200-33,300/mt FOB, late last week.
However, another scrap trader in Tokyo said the winning bids in Tuesday's auction were higher than the prices that traders were currently paying around the Tokyo Bay area to collect H2 material for export.
"It may mean that some [traders] are expecting prices to rise. We'll have to wait and see how prices move over the coming few days," he said.
Traders exporting from eastern Japan are currently paying scrap collectors Yen 31,000-31,500/mt FAS when gathering H2 material for export. This is unchanged from late last week and down from Yen 31,500/mt FAS last Wednesday.
S&P Global Platts last assessed the H2 scrap export price at Yen 32,500/mt ($299/mt) FOB Tokyo Bay September 6, down Yen 500/mt from the week before.
