Pakistani buyers continued to inquiry for imported ferrous scrap, but only a few showed buying interest. Many mills stayed away citing a lack of clarity on global scrap and steel prices.
Large-scale mills have raised asking rates for rebar to maintain the spread between scrap and rebar. Offers rose by up to PKR5,000/mt ($33/mt) both in the Northern and Southern regions in anticipation of an improvement in construction steel demand post-Eid holidays.
Driven by high raw materials prices, offers for rebar rose to PKR141,500-143,500/mt ex-works Karachi. In the Lahore market, prices were still lower by PKR4,000-5,000/mt than Karachi levels. Mills in Lahore have decided to wait for more bulk trades in Turkey before restocking scrap. In the absence of trades for domestic scrap and billets many mills decided to delay raw material purchases.
Trades for shredded are expected to pick up in the coming days on limited inventories. Sellers continued to hold their offers firm taking cues from global markets. The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Tuesday, settled at $522.5/mt cfr Port Qasim, up $2.50/mt from Monday. Most sellers quote $525-530/mt cfr Qasim for shredded from the EU/UK.
Market participants are gradually returning from holidays and so are workers who had left for their hometowns during the Eid holidays last week.
The daily Davis Index for UAE-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), Tuesday, settled at $503/mt cfr Port Qasim, stable from a day prior. Offers for UAE-origin mixed #1 HMS and P&S were at $510-515/mt cfr Qasim.
The daily index for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), Tuesday, remained unchanged at $505/mt cfr Port Qasim. Offers firm driven by high global steel prices. Most buyers opted for short-transit supply over the long haul amid several logistics challenges and delays at ports resulting in an additional cost for importers.
($1=PKR152.85)