Bangladeshi ferrous scrap buyers were silent on Tuesday as offers have gone sharply up. Low demand for rebar in the domestic market is still affecting steelmakers, who have been unable to raise their asking prices. Bids lag behind $10-15/mt than current offers as suppliers target only bulk buyers in the country.
In other bulk markets, offers for US West Coast-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) were not less than $355/mt cfr Chattogram with limited buying interest. With Turkish mills likely to accept $320/mt cfr Turkey levels for HMS 1&2 (80:20), Bangladeshi mills have to revise their bids to materialize deals. Prices surged in Japan, a major supplier to Bangladeshi mills, to catch up with global markets. Japanese suppliers are targeting $345-350/mt cfr Chattogram for Japanese #2 HMS in bulk, which is non-viable for mills due to weak steel demand.
The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Tuesday, settled at $358.75/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $8.25/mt from Thursday. Offers were in the range of $360-365/mt cfr Bangladesh against bids of upto $345-350/mt cfr Chattogram. A few mills walked away after booking shredded at around $345/mt cfr Chattogram from South America and Australia.
The weekly Davis Index for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $342.5/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $10/mt from Thursday with a few offers in the range $340-345/mt cfr Chattogram from Australia. Steelmakers might stay away from the import market if steel demand fails to rise.
The daily index for Latin America-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) settled at $335/mt cfr Chattogram, up by $9/mt from a week ago. Brazilian traders sought prices above $330-335/mt cfr Chattogram due to firm prices in their domestic market. Offers jumped for Latin American HMS #1 were above $340/mt cfr Chattogram.
Large steel producers like BSRM and AKS failed to increase steel prices and are offering rebar at BDT56,500-57,000/mt ex-works. Mills have to lift rebar prices soon as imported scrap surged sharply. Domestic shipbreaking scrap equivalent to P&S offered at BDT33,000-33,500/mt ex-yard Chattogram, up by BDT1,000/mt from the prior Friday. HMS 1&2 (80:20) was priced at BDT31,000/mt ex-yard Chattogram.
($1= BDT84.77)