November 22, 2008

Scrap price falls back in Hunan

It is reported that scrap price falls back lately in Hunan province and local leading steel mills have lowered their purchase prices by CNY 50 per tonne to CNY 80 per tonne.

Hengyang Steel Tube lowered scrap purchase price by CNY 50 per tonne, leaving latest price at CNY 3950 per tonne for first grade charging quality scrap and CNY 3890 per tonne for second grade charging quality scrap.

Lianyuan Steel pulled down prices by CNY 50 per tonne pushing latest price at CNY 3910 per tonne for heavy scrap. And Xiangtan Steel lowered prices by CNY 80 per tonne with latest prices offered at CNY 3990 per tonne for heavy scrap from other provinces and CNY 3950 per tonne for heavy scrap from local.

As per report, the weakening steel market is the root cause behind the scrap price decline. Steel mills are burdened with steep input costs. However, scrap stocks remain normal at the moment and market supply is limited. And price gap between scrap and pig iron is still big, this together with the recovering steel market in certain regions, have ruled out the possibility of sharp scrap price drop in the near future in local.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)