Higher Ferrous Scrap Market in Osaka, Tokyo

Ferrous scrap export price hit record FAS 48,550 yen per tonne for H2 from Osaka bay at export tender held by Osaka based ferrous scrap dealers’ group, Kansai Tetsugen on Tuesday. The price increased by around 10% or 4,450 yen from previous tender on January 15. The price was 3,000 yen or around 7% higher than the record export price from Tokyo at tender by Kanto Tetsugen on February. Osaka based scrap dealer, Koden International won the tender to ship 5,000 tonnes scrap from March 3 to April 3. The averaged bid was 46,035 yen per tonne, which was 4,496 yen higher than previous tender. Fifteen traders out of 17 eligible firms submitted 15 bids and 12 of the bids were more than 46,000 yen.Japanese scrap export increases under strong market in East Asia. The higher export price could lift the local market price around Osaka when local electric furnace steel makers pay 47,500-48,500 yen per tonne for H2, which is around 4,500 yen or 10% higher than the beginning of February. Tokyo’s electric furnace steel makers also increase the scrap purchase price under tight supply. They pay around 46,500-47,500 yen per tonne for H2 grade and some makers pay as high as 48,000 yen, which is 1,000 yen higher than last week. Tokyo Steel Manufacturing’s Utsunomiya plant increased the purchase price by 1,000 yen to 48,000 yen per tonne for H2 grade on Tuesday. Other makers followed the move. The makers around Tokyo increased the purchase price by 3,500-4,000 yen per tonne in the month. However, the scrap supply is still tight despite of the higher price. A dealer source said the market shows no negative factor and could increase more with strong demand from integrated steel makers and makers around Osaka.