Bangladesh: Imported Scrap Prices Stable in Recent Deals

In conversation with market participants, SteelMint learned that imported scrap offers to Bangladesh have been stabilized this week, however, the domestic market situation remained sluggish amid heavy rains and upcoming holidays for Eid in the country.

SteelMint’s assessment for containerized Shredded scrap from UK, Europe and USA stand stable at USD 325-330/MT, CFR Chittagong in comparison to the last week, while trades in containers reported majorly in the range of USD 325-328/MT, CFR.

As per sources, one of the leading manufacturers has recently booked 2,500 MT containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) scrap from Chile/USA and Australia origin at around USD 311-312/MT, CFR Chittagong while South American HMS 1 is being traded at around USD 315/MT, CFR. Offers of HMS 1&2 scrap stand in the range of USD 305-310/MT, CFR. However, trades slowed down as compared to earlier weeks.

Few steelmakers were looking for HMS 1&2 below USD 300/MT levels however, hardly few offers were available at these levels except UK/EU origin sheared HMS scrap with 3-4% impurities which is hovering in this range.

As per sources, Bangladesh market will start slowing down in next 4-5 days and then remain mostly closed for Eid from 9th-15th of August, lowering trades further. It is being anticipated that fresh demand will come in the market in early September as the market picks up then.

Last week, few deals of scrap in bulk vessels were heard by the Bangladeshi steel mills. As per sources, in the bulk bookings, HMS was booked around USD 325/MT and Shredded around USD 330-335/MT, CFR Bangladesh. A steelmaker heard under negotiation for Russian bulk scrap cargo, however, the confirmation on it is still awaited from the company official.

Domestic scrap prices fall amid weak sentiments - Local scrap market has been observing continued downtrend since last few weeks amid oversupply. Most of the steelmakers actively brought ships before budget declaration thus inventories of scrap coming out of breaking and processing of those ships remain high witnessing successive drop in domestic scrap prices. Offers for shipyard scrap currently hovering in the range of BDT 33,000-34,000/MT (USD 391-407), decreasing further by around BDT 1000/MT (USD 12) against last week. On competitive prices, few steelmakers prefer shipyard scrap over imported for time being.