Following a surge in US domestic scrap prices in the beginning of August, export market prices are firming as well. US domestic scrap prices jumped as much as $80/lt in Midwest during August buys, but prices in the East Coast only increased by about $30-$50/lt. Still, exporters have been attempting to capitalize on the general uptrend over the last couple weeks, even though actual cargos booked have not risen substantially. The latest bulk HMS I/II cargos from the US East Coast to Turkey were sold for approximately $415/mt CFR, up about $20-$25/mt over deals concluded two weeks ago. The most recent offers, however, are even higher, in the range of $420-$425/mt CFR for shredded and HMS I/II. However, it's not certain whether Turkish mills will be willing to pay such a steep increase considering the domestic finished steel market in Turkey is far from robust at the moment.
Exporters on the US West Coast have also been trying to raise prices to the Far East, but are not having as much success. Demand in China and Taiwan is still extremely weak and finished steel prices in those regions are slipping almost daily. Chinese mills have only purchased cargos from the US sporadically for months now, and have been sticking to domestic scrap as much as possible--domestic scrap prices in China have also been falling. As for Taiwan, ex-US container offers of HMS I/II have been inching up and the latest cargos were booked at $390-$395/mt CFR, little changed from two weeks ago but up about $10/mt since last week. Current ex-US offers to Taiwan are around $405/mt CFR, but sources believe it may take a couple weeks for prices to go over $400/mt. Meanwhile, the latest transactions concluded to Korea were at $405/mt CFR for bulk HMS I/II and $375/mt CFR for container scrap. Exporters have also been booking a decent amount of cargos to Vietnam, with offers currently at around $400/mt CFR for containerized scrap.