Hyundai Steel to Raise Rebar Price to Cover Higher Scarp Cost

Hyundai Steel is expected to increase the selling price of concrete reinforcing steel bar in September when the firm increased the domestic ferrous scrap purchase price by 20,000 won per tonne at Incheon plant on Thursday. The firm tries to encourage domestic scrap delivery with the higher price when the import price increases.

Hyundai Steel imported monthly 360,000 tonnes of scrap in January-June to balance the domestic scrap price. The firm is expected to import more than 400,000 tonnes in August while the import decreases in September. The firm would import Japanese scrap spot basis while the firm didn’t order Japanese scrap third week of August due to up to FOB 34,000 yen per tonne of high Japanese offer.

Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel increase the selling price by 30,000 won per tonne for H-beam and other shapes in late August. They increase the shapes by additional 20,000 won in September. They would increase the rebar price to cover higher scrap cost.

South Korean scrap import reached 5 million tonnes through July. The import increased by 20.2% to 5.095 million tonnes in the seven months from same period of 2009. The import from Japan decreased by 5.5% to 2.198 million tonnes while the import increased by 30.8% to 1.883 million tonnes from USA and by 87.7% to 410,819 tonnes from Russia.

South Korean scrap import decreased by 9.8% to 566,334 tonnes in July from a year earlier. The import decreased by 28% to 181,961 tonnes from Japan and by 43.4% to 169,664 tonnes from USA while the import increased by 141.4% to 92,453 tonnes from Russia.