This kind of waste that you throw away has gone up by 70% compared to last year! What happened
Since April last year, the price of scrap steel has been rising. In March this year, the price of scrap steel exceeded 3,000 yuan per ton, a record high since 2008.
How exactly is scrap steel recycled?
Why has the price of scrap steel changed so much?
Shanghai: Scrap purchase prices increase, scrap steel recycling base inventory doubles
At a waste recycling station in Baoshan District, Shanghai, the reporter met Huang Yong, the person in charge, and he told reporters.
Residents in nearby communities will send home waste products here and sell them to him. He will sort the waste products and sell them to the corresponding resource recycling company.
Huang Yong told reporters that although the amount of scrap produced in residential areas is not large, it has been stable.
Five or six tons can be received every month. Thanks to the huge increase in scrap prices so far last year, the efficiency of the scrap recycling station is very good.
Huang Yong, the person in charge of a waste recycling station in Baoshan District, Shanghai: The start of this year was pretty good, and the market was better than last year. Last year was too difficult.
In the scrap steel recycling base, the good ones are 2.5 yuan and 2.6 yuan per kilogram, and the poor ones are 2 yuan per kilogram.
Last year, the good ones were 1.7 and 1.8 yuan per kilogram, and the poor 1.3 yuan per kilogram was not demanded.
The reporter learned that the volume and weight of scrap steel is relatively large, and the scrap recycling station is usually sent to the scrap steel processing base nearby.
At the Haiguang Wharf in Baoshan District, Shanghai, the reporter saw the scrap steel processing base.
The person in charge told the reporter that the entire base processes about 20,000 tons of scrap steel every month. The amount of civil scrap is not large, accounting for only 30%. Most of the base is industrial scrap produced by industrial production and construction.
Zhang Tianshou, manager of a resource recycling company in Haiguang Wharf, Baoshan District, Shanghai: In 2020, the lowest scrap steel sold was 2,100 yuan a ton, and the highest scrap steel sold this year was 3,500 yuan a ton. The lowest price has increased by 60% and 70%.
As the price of scrap steel has been rising, the base has also increased the stock of scrap steel, and the inventory has doubled.
Zhang Tianshou said that when the market is better, he will increase the inventory accordingly. The goods entering the market are more inclined to inventory and not inclined to sell.
Conventional stocks in October 2020 are about 2,000 and 3,000 tons.
After the price increase started in October last year, the inventory did not fall below 6,000 tons.
Domestic scrap steel is still in short supply and prices are difficult to fall
In one year, the price of scrap steel has seen such a big increase, and the scrap steel recycling bases have begun to increase their inventory. How long can the increase of scrap steel continue?
How will scrap prices change in the future?
In a scrap recycling base in Jiading District, Shanghai, workers are stacking the transported scrap steel according to its thickness.
There are more than 10,000 tons of scrap steel in the site, which will be compressed into pieces and transported to a steel plant near Shanghai as the raw material for smelting steel.
Liu Xiwu, chairman of a renewable resources company in Jiading District, Shanghai, said that the current processing and delivery capacity is about 20,000 to 30,000 tons a month, and the site now requires more than 10,000 tons of stock turnover. Once the steel plant needs it, it must ensure the existing The inventory can continue to turn around.
In Xuzhou, Jiangsu, a large local electric furnace steelmaking plant produces 3,600 tons of steel per day. It needs to use 1.2 million tons of scrap every year, and only consumes 100,000 tons of scrap every month to make steel.
The reporter learned that steel mills have a large demand for scrap steel, and a single scrap steel recycling base cannot meet the needs of steel mills.
The bargaining power for scrap steel is concentrated in large steel mills in various regions.
As of March 30, 2021, the price of rebar has risen to 4964 yuan per ton, which is more than 50% higher than that of 3,300 yuan per ton in April 2020.
As a result, under the background of relatively good profits, steel mills have pushed up scrap steel purchase prices in order to compete for limited scrap steel resources.
Liu Xiwu, chairman of a renewable resource company in Jiading District, Shanghai: It is very tight now because the market is transparent. If everyone is optimistic about the future market expectations, we are also under pressure.
At present, the output of scrap steel is far from meeting the needs of steel mills, and resources have been in a relatively short period of time.
Industry insiders told reporters that although my country's current annual scrap steel production has increased by nearly 20 million tons, because the demand for steel is also growing rapidly, scrap steel will still be in a state where demand exceeds supply.
However, due to environmental protection restrictions in Hebei and other places, steel mills' demand for scrap steel has changed.
Therefore, scrap prices will fluctuate to a certain extent in the short term.
Gao Wei, director of the scrap steel business department of a domestic information platform: It depends on the final price of downstream finished steel, such as rebar.
The price of rebar minus the cost of smelting is about 1,200 and 1,300 yuan, and it is more reasonable to get the price of scrap.
The current scrap price is reasonable, because the steel mills now have a profit of 700 yuan per ton of blast furnace steelmaking, and the profit of 300 to 400 yuan for electric furnace steelmaking.