Electric Furnaces Raise Ferrous Scrap Buy Prices in Osaka

Osaka area’s electric furnace steel makers increased the ferrous scrap purchase price by 500 yen from previous week to 37,000-38,000 yen per tonne for H2 grade. They try to encourage the dealers’ shipment when the scrap arrivals decrease due to slower scrap generation and major export shipment in the area. Kishiwada Steel increased the price by 500 yen for turning scrap and 1,000 yen for other grades on Thursday and some others increased the prices. The makers’ purchase price increased by 2,000 yen per tonne or 6% from recent bottom in the area. Some makers pay as high as 38,500 yen per tonne. With the mixed purchase price, a trading firm source expects the scrap arrivals could decrease for lower priced makers. The scrap supply, which could get easier seasonally in normal year, is tighter than normal due to smaller inflow from other areas despite of Nakayama Steel Works is in outage. A dealer said with the limited supply, they cannot build inventory and ship large volume as usual.