India’s imported aluminium scrap prices fall W-o-W owing to monsoon slowdown despite stable LME rates

This week, India's imported aluminium scrap prices have experienced a downward correction. This is primarily due to the impact of the approaching monsoon on market demand, despite the stable LME aluminium prices. The resulting activity slowdown has led to this market shift. The 3-month LME aluminium prices remained steady at $2,500/t, with little change week-over-week.

According to BigMint's assessment, tense scrap from the Middle East, particularly the UAE, saw a US$30 per tonne decline, settling at US$1,800 per tonne. Additionally, zorba 95/5 from the UK dropped by $50 per tonne, reaching $2,080 per tonne CFR on the west coast of India. Meanwhile, a few grades like US tense 6-7 per cent and UK taint tabor C/S recorded a drop of up to US$25 per tonne w-o-w moving down to US$1,835 per tonne and US$1,780 per tonne CFR west coast.

Market changes

Despite the Middle East market being closed last week for the Eid holidays, which lasted five days from June 14 (Friday) to June 18 (Tuesday), activities have remained sluggish this week. In May, India's aluminium scrap imports increased by 19% compared to the previous month, following a 5% rise in April, according to provisional data from BigMint. The imports reached 161,644 tonnes in May, up from 135,816 tonnes in April.

"In India, buying interest is expected to stay low until after July. Alloy manufacturers have enough scrap stocks to meet orders for the next 1-2 months because of delayed shipments that arrived in May from orders placed between January and March," said an alloy manufacturer.

In the domestic market, tense scrap prices have remained range-bound in Delhi and Chennai. BigMint's assessment shows domestic tense scrap prices are INR 182,000/t ex-Delhi NCR and INR 183,000/t ex-Chennai.

Outlook

Looking ahead, imported scrap prices are expected to experience slight adjustments due to weak demand. Globally, uncertainty continues to impact LME aluminium prices, which have fallen to $2,500 per tonne after reaching a two-year high of $2,750 per tonne at the beginning of May.

sourced from SteelMint under the content exchange agreement