Reportedly, Nippon Metal Industry Co., Ltd and Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co., Ltd. cut ￥10,000/ton for their purchasing price of nickel based stainless scrap last week, they currently offer ￥75,000~ 80,000/ton to the steel mills.

However, the biggest Japanese stainless steel mills, Nippon Steel and Sumikin, just adopt a wait-and-see attitude for this changeable price.

On the other hand, compare to nickel stainless scarp and nickel prices, nickel price is higher than nickel stainless scarp price presently, moreover, steel mills wouldn’t like to purchase the scrap because they still have stock.

Meanwhile, Japanese stainless scrap exporters are facing many overseas competitors nowadays. The American Pittsburgh Sabot price has been down to US$650/ton due to the American sluggish market and their current export offer has decreased to CIF US$800~850/ton to Asian main ports.

Japanese scrap exports decline in October

Japan exported 264,000 tons of scrap in October, down by 52.6 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Moreover, Japan exports 4.702 million tons of scrap in the first 10 months, decreased by 82.3 percent from last year.

The export volume for the whole year is predicted to reach 5.64 million tons.

Korea was the main export destination at 2.287 million tons, down by year-on-year 22.1 percent. Shipments to China totaled 2.067 million tons, up by 7.7 percent from a year earlier.

Source:  www.yieh.com