Become a customer

Japanese scrap prices up 6% on the week

Japanese spot prices for scrap have soared in the wake of recent moves by Tokyo Steel to raise its own prices for scrap purchases and product exports.

November 22, 2012
By Generic people page

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

The national average price for H2 grade scrap now stands at ¥23,926 ($291) per tonne, according to the latest weekly figures put out by the Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Assn.

The new average price marks a ¥1,384 – or a 6.1% – increase on the previous week and means that Japanese scrap prices have now shot up by ¥2,775 per tonne in just two weeks.

Scrap prices are being driven higher by heavy buying ahead of the upcoming long weekend in conjunction with the country’s Labour Thanksgiving Day, and a general improvement in the supply and demand situation.

Also supporting higher domestic prices are strong export prices, with deals to Taiwan last week reportedly being settled at $375 per tonne cfr and those to China at $375 per tonne fob, while one major Korean mill apparently bid ¥26,000 per tonne fob for a consignment of H2 scrap.