The Russian steel scrap market remained largely unaltered at the end of December. In spite of the adverse circumstances in the final product market, purchasers favoured maintaining price stability for the New Year’s holiday.
In order to level their bids with the market average tags. A few buyers in the southern part of the country slightly lowered their prices at the end of December.
Specifically, starting on December 26, a number of major consumers in the Southern Federal District lowered their prices by RUB 500/t ($6/t).
According to market participants, they have also announced reductions following the holidays as a result of the state of decline in the finished and semi-finished product segments. The majority of mills in the Southern Federal District declined to alter their offered prices in December due to the overall declining trend.
The current adjustments therefore primarily aim to level prices with the average tags on the market. The regional range widened to RUB 26,200-27,700/t (265-295 $/t; excluding 20 percent VAT, $1 = RUB 90.30)
CPT mill versus RUB 26,700-27,700/t (291-302 $/t based on significant exchange rate) a week earlier as a result of some mills with state orders failing to lower their prices at the same time.
Other regions’ prices stayed the same. In the Central Federal District, quotes for A3 scrap were RUB 24,300-27,000/t ($269-299/t; henceforth excluding 20% VAT, FCA collector); in the Northwestern Federal District and the Urals, quotes were RUB 21,000-26,600/t ($233-295/t) and RUB 22,300-26,100/t ($247-289/t), respectively.
According to Metal Expert, the market will not change during the holidays, which run through January 8. As usual, mills will favour using more stocks that were pre-prepared for the winter.