Scrap prices are tapering down in Northeast Asia, Kallanish notes. This is happening in tandem with the international scrap markets.

South Korea’s Hyundai Steel booked a 45,000-tonne cargo of ferrous scrap from West Coast US at $287.50/tonne cfr, HMS 1 basis, sources close to the company confirmed. The cargo, is due for April arrival, and was transacted just before the lunar new holiday which commenced at the end of last week. The deal reflects prices are coming off after offers to the region were close to or above $300/t in December.

Market sentiment is soft. “The market will come down lower for future cargoes,” a trader in Seoul says on Wednesday.

In Japan, leading EAF operator Tokyo Steel cut its domestic scrap prices twice, by a total JPY1,000/t ($9/t) in the past week. It most recently reduced the price for H2 scrap purchases trucked to its Utsunomiya steelworks, located north of Tokyo, by JPY 500/tonne to JPY 24,000/t, effective 29 January. Just four days prior to that, the company cut the mill's H2 procurement prices by JPY 500/t effective 25 January.

Japanese H2 scrap was purchased in South Korea at JPY 25,000/t fob just before the lunar new year holiday. Traders now expect prices to fall to JPY 24,000/t in line with Tokyo's latest prices reductions, a trader says.