In Bangladesh, domestic rebar prices have failed to pick up as expected despite the resumption of construction work. Consequently, domestic mills had to keep their finished steel’s asking prices ‘flat to down’ amid limited buying and trade movement. A few buyers resumed containerized trades, buying imported scrap for their immediate needs.
In the bulk market, offers for US West Coast-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) Monday were around $330-335/mt cfr Chattogram with limited buying interest. Buyers are expected to resume trades this week if finished steel prices show signs of recovery.
“Bulk buyers have already bought two bulk cargoes, one from the US and another from the European suppliers which have now limited the interest of other buyers as these mills focus on domestic sales of rebar — which has failed to pick up,” said a trader.
The Davis Index for containerized shredded, Tuesday, settled at $344.56/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $0.14/mt from Monday. Trades were limited for containerized shredded from Europe and UK origin at $342-345/mt cfr Chattogram, pushing offers to above $345-350/mt cfr Bangladesh on Tuesday. A mill in Chattogram bought 1,000mt of Australia/US origin shredded at $343/mt cfr Chattogram while a few mills were hoping to book shredded at around $340/mt cfr Chattogram from South America and Australia.
The weekly Davis Index for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) Tuesday settled at $328.36/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $2.07/mt. Though deals were limited due to the longer delivery period, offers were in the range of $330-335/mt cfr Chattogram with a handful of suppliers in the play.
After a long gap, Brazilian suppliers and traders resumed offers to Bangladesh. Brazilian suppliers had reduced trades with Bangladesh amid robust domestic demand. The daily index for Latin America-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $321/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $1/mt from Monday, while offers were at $325/mt cfr Chattogram for HMS 1&2 (80:20). Containerized HMS #1 offers from Brazil jumped by $5-7/mt on Monday to $328-330/mt cfr Chattogram from the prior week.
In the domestic market, many steel mills in Bangladesh are concerned by the government’s focus on the strict collection of VAT. This could lead to higher input costs for many steel producers and force them to increase steel prices.
A few mills have even lowered their sale prices by BDT500/mt for steel products. On Tuesday, domestic billet offers were at BDT42,000-42,500/mt ex-works Chattogram stable from a day earlier, however, few traders sold billets at discounted prices of BDT41,000-41,500/mt ex-works Chattogram as demand failed to go up significantly.
A few mid-sized mills dropped their asking prices to BDT51,000-51,500/mt ex-works Chattogram, down BDT500/mt despite high input costs due to scrap supply shortage. Large steel producers like BSRM and AKS are still offering rebar at BDT56,000-57,000/mt ex-works, stable barring the earlier expectations of recovery. Domestic shipbreaking scrap equivalent to P&S traded at BDT32,000-32,500/mt ex-yard Chattogram, down BDT500/mt. Buyers on Tuesday were interested in rebar at BDT49,000-49,500/mt ex-works offered by a few small-scale rebar makers.
($1= BDT84.75)