Pakistani buyers resumed trades for imported ferrous scrap to refill depleted inventories. Large-scale mills 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.
Most mills resumed active restocking of ferrous scrap driven by a rise in rebar prices. Sellers continued to hold their offers firm taking cues from global markets. The daily Davis Index for containerized shredded, Wednesday, settled at $520/mt cfr Port Qasim, down $2.50/mt from Tuesday. Around 7,000mt of shredded from the UK traded at $515/mt cfr Qasim, while other deals heard at $518/mt, $520/mt and $523/mt cfr Qasim in the last two days. Most offers for shredded from the EU/UK at $525-530/mt cfr Qasim
Mills plan to resume operations at normal levels as demand is expected to return soon. But trades for billets and rebar are yet to pick up resulting in delays in scrap purchases.
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. Local rebar offered at PKR130,000/mt ex-works. Few buyers are waiting for domestic demand to gain momentum and global prices to settle, particularly in China where prices showed mixed trends.
The daily Davis Index for UAE-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), Wednesday, settled at $503/mt cfr Port Qasim, stable from a day prior. Offers for UAE-origin mixed #1 HMS and P&S were at $510-520/mt cfr Qasim, however, mills buying interest were still around $505/mt cfr Qasim.
The daily index for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), Wednesday, remained unchanged at $505/mt cfr Port Qasim. Offers firm driven by high global steel prices and buyers’ preference for short-transit scrap.
($1=PKR152.85)