Prices for steel scrap across Asian markets have plummeted in recent days due to weak sentiment and buyers abstaining from purchases, market participants told Fastmarkets on Friday January 22.

Suppliers are offering wider discounts in early negotiations for long-term ferro-vanadium contracts for 2020 compared with this year, according to market sources.

The enlargement of the quarantine zone in Italy to a nationwide reach has already started to affect steel output, with at least two long steel mills announcing production stoppages, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday March 11.

The price of shredded steel scrap imported jumped by almost $30 per tonne on Friday December 18 due to continued tightness in container availability and a strong international market, sources told Fastmarkets.

ArcelorMittal has begun the revamp of a blast furnace in Brazil earlier than planned, and has also temporarily stopped operations at a rebar facility in the country due to market conditions.

Turkish producers continued to book scrap cargoes despite weakening steel demand in the country, while Asian markets registered modest gains over the working week ended Friday May 15.

Fastmarkets proposes to discontinue four price assessments of steel in Argentina following a long period of low liquidity and an inactive spot market.

The momentum in the imported containerized scrap price from the United States West Coast sold into Taiwan slowed this week but industry sources expect some further upside in the near term.

Fastmarkets’ 62% Fe iron ore fines index just experienced its most volatile week on record: a biggest-ever daily gain of $18.31 on Monday May 10 came before a new high of $237.57 per tonne on May 12, followed by a record daily loss of $28.78 on May 14.

Fastmarkets has amended the publication date of its Brazilian domestic steel price assessments, ex-works Brazil, reais per tonne, following market feedback.