Although the national holiday officially ended at the end of last week, in Pakistan most market insiders have not resumed work so far, with industry production levels ranging not higher than 30-40 percent, while some steel mills have yet to restart operations. At the same time, ongoing fluctuations in freight rates have continued to affect the import scrap trade.
More specifically, offers for ex-UK/EU shredded scrap in containers have been voiced at $425/mt CFR, against $425-430/mt CFR before the holiday. According to market insiders, several deals for around 3,000 mt in total have been reported for ex-EU shredded scrap at $418-424/mt CFR, down by $5/mt over the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, offers for ex-UAE shredded and HMS grade scrap have been voiced at $428/mt CFR and $405/mt CFR, respectively, the same as before the holiday.
At the same time, in the domestic market, most offers for scrap equivalent to shredded have been voiced at PKR 148,000-155,000/mt ($531-556/mt) ex-warehouse, the same as two weeks ago, while offers for local 10-12 mm rebar of grade 60 have settled at PKR 250,000-255,000/mt ($897-915/mt) ex-works, down by PKR 2,000/mt ($7/mt) on the lower end of range over the past two weeks.
All prices on Pakistani rupee basis include 18 percent VAT.
$1 = PKR 278.80