Japan scrap steel plummets

Print this page Posted on : 10-30-2008 by recycleinme.com

Japan's scrap iron and steel prices slumped to the lowest in at least three years as mills in Japan joined rivals in China and the US in paring output, reducing global demand for the raw material. The average so-called H2-grade ferrous scrap price sank 22 per cent to 14,076 yen ($146) a tonne as of October 27 from a week earlier, the Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association said on its Web site. Nippon Steel Corp, Japan's biggest blast-furnace steelmaker, has said it would cut output this year. "Blast furnaces will slash scrap consumption because they have to consume all the iron ore they have contracted for," said Mr Ryoichi Izawa, a manager at Hanwa Co, a steel, nonferrous metals and machinery trading company based in Osaka. "We have about 200,000 tonnes of redundant scrap in the Greater Tokyo area." Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co, Japan's biggest electric-arc furnace mill, said it would stop buying scrap for its mill in Okayama, as storage has reached capacity. Nippon Steel and the largest blast-furnace mills in Asia agreed to increases of as much as 97 per cent from a year earlier for iron ore under long-term contracts that took effect April 1.

Source : Business Line