The price in Japan for nickel alloyed stainless steel scraps (new clippings) rose to JPY 125,000 per ton, delivered to mills’ yard, from JPY 120,000 per ton, the latest price quoted by the mills for December deliveries. The SUS mills had withheld announcing their prices for January during the first week of January in order to watch the market, but finally quoted JPY 125,000 per ton earlier this week.
The price of imported SUS scraps has risen in yen due to the sharply weakened yen currency to JPY 89 and the firm increase in the price in USD for “Sabot” (solid 18-8 SUS scraps), by which the prices of domestically generated scraps have been unavoidably affected.
The buying price of a major scrap exporter is said already JPY 135,000 to JPY 140,000 per ton delivered to the buyer’s yard, indicating a big gap from the mills’ quoted price. Therefore it is likely that more cargos will be directed to exports for higher-priced sales, unless the gap is somehow narrowed.
