The arrival of the monsoon, coupled with prevailing market sluggishness and availability of cheaper direct reduced iron, have significantly impacted the intake of scrap in India. As a result, imported scrap offers plummeted by around $10-12/tonne on-week, sources tell Kallanish.

Offers for containerised US-, UK-, and EU-origin shredded scrap are noted at $418-420/tonne cfr Nhava Sheva, Chennai, and Mundra. Most bookings were concluded at these levels in Mundra and Pipawa. A few bookings were also heard concluding at $415/t cfr Mundra on Wednesday.

Offers for Poland-origin busheling and PNS are noted at $440-445/t and $430-435/t, respectively, cfr Mundra.

A few deals for Poland-origin HMS were made at $410-412/t cfr Chennai. Brazil- and Chile-origin HMS were booked at $405-407/t cfr Mundra.

Deals for West African-origin HMS 80:20 scrap were concluded at $400-402/t cfr Mundra in 20-21-tonne containers. Meanwhile, West African-origin HMS 80:20 offers in 22-23t and 25-26t containers were heard at $405-407/t and $410-412/t cfr Mundra, respectively.

Offers for Bahrain- and Kuwait-origin HMS were heard at $430-435/t cfr Mundra.

Meanwhile, no offers were reported for United Arab Emirates-origin HMS.

"The monsoon has started in almost all parts of India and owing to this, the demand for steel is dropping noticeably," says a mill source. "There is so much risk now ... Cash liquidity is very low in the market; offtake is slow; inventories are thus increasing."

Speaking about importing scrap, the source adds: "Sponge iron is still more viable as there is still a difference of INR 3,000-4,000 [$37-49] for producing hot metal from sponge iron versus scrap. As a result of this, a majority of mills have raised the intake of DRI."

Offers for Hospet-origin DRI lumps 80% Fe plummeted to around INR 30,500-31,000/t ($396) dap Gandhi Dham and DRI pellet 78% Fe is heard at INR 29,500-29,700/t dap Gandhi Dham. Bookings for Qatar-origin DRI 80% Fe are meanwhile heard being made at INR 31,500/t cfr Mundra.

Meanwhile, delayed financing continues to haunt Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based steel mills, resulting in very limited bookings being made in both nations. Offers for UK- and EU-origin shredded scrap were noted at $425-428/t cfr Port Qasim, whereas bids were noted at $422-423/t cfr Port Qasim.

In Bangladesh, bulk HMS, shredded, and bonus are noted stable at $422-425/t, $425-430/t, and $435-440/t cfr Chattogram respectively. No bulk bookings were made this week. Meanwhile, a few containerised deals for Australian HMS were heard at $415/t cfr Chattogram on Wednesday.

Both the Pakistan and Bangladesh markets are observing Eid al Adha holidays and will be closed for the rest of the week.