According to market sources, an increase in the number of physical scrap cargoes offered in key import market Vietnam in the week to Thursday December 31 has dampened sentiment. 

Lower Japanese cargo prices are offered in the end of the year

A Vietnamese shared that many Japanese sellers decided to offer lower scrap prices to clear out all their physical cargoes and close their trading books for the end of the year. For example, some steel mills indicated that they could purchase at $460 per tonne cfr Vietnam, while Japanese H2 cargoes were offered at $470-475. 

Many buyers decided to wait and see after seeing the price falls in China for both steel and iron ore. Meanwhile, bulk Japanese HS had been offered at $480-485 per tonne cfr Vietnam, which limited the major buyers’ interest to purchase. Some even said that they would prefer to purchase domestic crap as their inventory levels are high.

Steel scrap price is on down trend 

Hong Kong-origin H1&H2 (50:50) was offered at $455 per tonne cfr Vietnam. However, there were no transactions heard concluded for these materials. Weekly price assessment for steel scrap H2, Japan-origin import, cfr Vietnam was $465-470 per tonne on Thursday, unchanged from a week earlier. 

Bulk shipments of HMS 1&2 (80:20) from the US West Coast were offered at $500-505 per tonne cfr Vietnam, unchanged from the prior week. Bids were heard at $470-480 per tonne cfr Vietnam, but there were no transactions heard. Meanwhile, Bruneian material was offered at $475 per tonne cfr Vietnam. 

Will the steel scrap price still decrease?

We have yet to receive any sign for the scrap price in the early days of 2021, as many market participants in the United States and Asia have already left the spot market for the holidays. Hence, there is no spot discussion heard for bulk HMS 1&2 (80:20) cargoes after closing trading books.

\ A scrap trader in Singapore also shared that almost all steel mills in Vietnam would wait until after the New Year to come back into the spot market. For now, the weekly price assessment for deep-sea bulk cargoes of steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam was $480-500 per tonne on Thursday, unchanged week on week. Meanwhile, containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) was offered at $450 per tonne cfr Vietnam.

Source: Fastmarkets