Demand for both domestic and imported scrap continued to be low in the China market on Friday July 2, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Prices for containerized ferrous scrap in the key Taiwanese market surged this week amid strong demand for cargoes and limited offers from sellers waiting for more price increases.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up across the board this morning, Wednesday July 7, suggesting dip buying after Tuesday’s weakness that saw copper, aluminium and nickel fall by 2%, or more.

Indian secondary steel billet prices have risen by 900 rupees ($12) per tonne in the current week on higher costs for basic raw materials such as direct-reduced iron (DRI), coupled with increased buying of semi-finished steel by makers of long products.

Turkish steel producers continued to book deep-sea scrap for July shipments at higher prices on Monday May 24 even as market sentiment turned negative, sources told Fastmarkets.

An accident at Kaohsiung port, Taiwan, in which a tower crane collapsed on Thursday June 3 will likely have minimal impact on discharge rates for containerized ferrous scrap in the coming days, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Buyers of bulk cargoes of scrap imports in the key Southeast Asian market of Vietnam were largely on the sidelines during the week to Friday June 11, due to falling domestic scrap and steel prices in the country, sources told Fastmarkets.

Member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) raised their finished steel production from January 21-31, from the preceding 10 days, according to data published by the association on Wednesday February 3.

Global steel scrap prices surged in the week to Friday May 7 and could well break through the $500 per tonne cfr mark, starting in Asia, market sources have told Fastmarkets.

China’s infrastructure spending has aided the steel market’s recovery from the effects of Covid-19 shutdowns and is very likely to facilitate “a great prospective” for the consumption of steel and ferro-alloys used in infrastructure, delegates heard at Fastmarkets’ “Covid-19 and Asian ferro-alloys market” webinar on Tuesday June 30.