India’s import scrap prices have moved up with sellers hiking offer levels amid revived buying interest, with secondary mills restocking raw materials with greater confidence in the wake of surging prices of rebars over the past several weeks, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Wednesday, October 9.
Ex-UK/Europe containerised shredded scrap increased in two steps, firstly, to $398-402/mt CFR Nhava Sheva port in the west compared to $395-400/mt CFR a week ago, but later it was further pushed up to $405-408/mt CFR as buyers were seen to be returning to the market and confirming deals.
According to the sources, a trade for 2,000 mt of containerised shredded scrap of UK origin was reported at $402/mt CFR by a western India-based secondary mill-cum-scrap trading firm.
Another trade for 3,000 mt was reported by a secondary mill, for ex-Europe origin at $408/mt CFR Nhava Sheva port, the sources said.
Ex-UK HMS scrap prices moved up to $385-390/mt CFR Kandla port, up by $10/mt on average from last week, though no deals were reported for this grade.
“Following robust rebound in the rebar market, secondary mills and trade channels have much more confidence on entering the import market despite rising offer levels. The only limiting factor to higher trade activity are the festival holidays starting today and the closure of business activity. We expect trade activity to gain momentum later in the month with buyers having better options to pass on higher scrap prices to their end-users,” a Mumbai-based ferrous and non-ferrous scrap trader said.