Pakistan: Imported Scrap Price Hike Pushes Domestic Steel Prices

SteelMint learned in recent conversations with market participants that the imported scrap offers to Pakistan have continued to move up this week with recent upsurge the global market. After remaining slow earlier in the previous week, trade activities have picked up . Local scrap and Billet prices moved up on increasing global scrap offers, while domestic steel demand remains low.

SteelMint’s assessment for containerized Shredded 211 scrap from UK/Europe stands at USD 288/MT, CFR Qasim, up by USD 5/MT against last week’s report. Since closing of last week, several bookings in containers were reported for Shredded scrap at USD 284-285/MT CFR from UK, while offers from most global suppliers are now in the range of USD 288-290/MT, CFR.

It was reported that availability of material is a concern, with few major suppliers in Europe not offering to Pakistan this week. Supply tightness is expected to further increase the prices in the coming weeks as collection prices move.

Imported HMS trades remained very poor this week, although the offers increased further. UAE origin HMS 1 (super) is now being offered at around USD 275/MT CFR, while European and UK origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) is being reported at USD 265/MT.

Local Billet prices witness Upsurge - Following the continued rise in imported scrap prices, domestic scrap and prices also moved up significantly. Bala Billet and CC Billet (G40 & G60) moved up sharply by PKR 5000/MT W-o-W, while local scrap eq to shredded also rose by PKR 2000/MT against last week, currently standing at PKR 65,000/MT.

Even as raw material prices have moved up considerably, Rebar prices observed only slight improvement, as severely low steel demand in the market has put mills under pressure against any significant price hike. In the northern region, rebar’s average offer prices were reported at around PKR 109,000-110,000/MT, ex-works (USD 697 - 704), while Southern (Karachi region) steel mills are offering at PKR 110-111,000/MT (USD 704 - 710) ex-works, up by PKR 1000/MT on a weekly basis.