Japanese scrap prices rebound in export auction

The winning price in Wednesday's auction for H2 grade scrap for export held by the Kanto Tetsugen grouping of scrap dealers around Tokyo saw the winning price reach Yen 51,087/tonne ($338/t) FAS, higher by Yen 987/t than the top bid in last month's tender for current month shipments and marking the first increase in two months. The auction organizer said the top price was about what the scrap dealers had expected.

"Honestly, we believed that the winning price would be around Yen 51,500-52,000/t (and) considering the weaker yen, it could have been Yen 500-1,000/t higher," according to Kanto Tetsugen chairman, Koji Minami. After all, at the time of last month's tender the Japanese currency was trading at Yen 147=$1 whereas