Bangladesh: Imported Scrap Prices Fall Amid Limited Trades

In conversation with market participants, SteelMint learned that imported scrap offers to Bangladesh have softened on an overall lowered buying interest from South Asian markets in addition to low domestic demand. Following the decent restocking and bulk bookings in the last couple of weeks, the trade activities remained sluggish this week with few deals for maintaining inventories being observed.

The domestic market remained slow, while heavy monsoon and upcoming Eid season have kept outlook weak for the short term.

SteelMint’s assessment for containerized Shredded scrap from UK, Europe and USA stands at USD 325-327/MT, CFR Chittagong, down by USD 5-7/MT in comparison to last week, while few suppliers in USA were reported to be offering at around USD 328/MT, but deals were yet to be confirmed.

Containerized HMS scrap prices drop - Trade deals remained moderate for HMS scrap on sharply lowered prices with deals for HMS 1 of Brazil and other South American origins concluded at around 315/MT, CFR Chittagong, as against USD 320-322/MT levels seen in the preceding week. UK origin HMS 1 and HMS 1&2 (80:20) were being offered at around USD 310/MT and USD 300-305/MT CFR respectively, while few suppliers from African region offered HMS 1 at USD 312-315/MT, CFR Chittagong.

Domestic steel market turns sluggish - With heavy rainfall observed in several regions in Bangladesh, construction activities have been hampered, thus affecting the already subdued finished steel demand. With upcoming Eid and national holidays in a few weeks likely to cause labor shortage, steelmakers are accordingly planning to match the demand and supply. As reported earlier, with implementation of advance tax procedure being completed by next week, finished steel’s price hike is expected in the short term.

Local scrap market has continued the downtrend for a few weeks and is expected to drop further amid oversupply. Offers for yard scrap currently stand at around BDT 34,000-34,500/MT (USD 402-408), decreasing by around BDT 1500/MT in last 2-3 weeks. Few trades of inferior grade Local HMS (80:20) reported at around BDT 31,500/MT (USD 373) while domestic suppliers offered LMS bundles at around BDT 28,000/MT as prices have slided down.