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Daily Market Note — 2026-10-21

4 min read

Daily Market Note — 2026-10-21

Market commentary on the global ferrous scrap trade. Not trading advice.

The read

Still no new Pakistan shredded print; the published level is last Friday’s. The CFR Port Qasim shredded price (Fastmarkets MB-STE-0887) for 16 October is 414.07 USD per tonne, down 3.24 (-0.78%) from 417.31 on 9 October. The next weekly print is due Friday 23 October. A BigMint listing for 21 October labels sentiment on Europe-origin container shredded to Qasim “Strong”, but the value is behind a subscription and the page opened directly still showed a 19 October record, so it is a sentiment label, not a price or a traded level. Physical inflow is large but historic: SteelOrbis reported on 16 October that Pakistan imported 427,880 tonnes of scrap in September, up 18.3% on August and 16.7% on a year earlier, with a reported import value of 248.68 million USD. That says what arrived, not what mills will pay for October cargoes.

Key moves

  • Pakistan rupee — about PKR 276.86 per US dollar at the 21 October interbank close, against 276.87 on 20 October. Importers settle at their bank’s rate and charges.
  • Pakistan diesel — the high-speed diesel price is PKR 389.80 per litre from 21 October, up 0.53 from 389.27. Container haulage quotes do not reset automatically.
  • Japan — Tokyo Steel’s notice of 21 October raises all 13 Kyushu purchasing rows by 1,000 from 22 October. The PDF carries no currency or weight label (IRU-MIRU’s coverage points to yen); it is a domestic buying schedule, not an export price.
  • India — SMM reported on 21 October domestic HMS 1&2 (80:20) at INR 38,000 per tonne delivered Mandi, up INR 300 on 19 October; tax basis is unstated and it is not comparable with imported shredded.

Freight and shipping

  • Gulf risk — Reuters reported on 21 October at least 18 vessel attacks over two weeks (Kpler data), with threats reaching the Gulf of Oman, and Brent near 109 USD a barrel (Reuters 109.04 at 14:50 UTC; ICE front-month about 108.82). Active Gulf navigation warnings (NGA) stayed at 19, so that gauge does not reflect the cited attack count. Singapore’s maritime authority has confirmed the container ship GFS Pride was struck and sank, with the crew evacuated; Fastmarkets reported on 14 October that it carried scrap bound for Pakistan, but no manifest quantity has been published. No carrier war-risk surcharge or insurer exclusion on Pakistan services has been reported.
  • Oil-transport costs — the IEA’s 21 October commentary links Hormuz congestion and rerouting to higher tanker costs. It is energy-cost context, not a container or scrap freight rate. Maersk’s 20 October advisory describes East China network recovery as improving but incomplete.
  • Port Qasim — the Port Qasim Authority programme for 21 October lists four planned berthings and one planned sailing (palm oil and gasoline among the cargoes), against five and four on 20 October. Scheduled calls are not completed movements.

Supplier markets

  • EU — the Commission’s feedback period on the draft list of non-OECD countries that could receive EU waste closed on 16 October; adoption is marked upcoming with no date and no extension has been granted. The new controls apply from 21 May 2027 by country and waste code, and BIR’s review shows Pakistan not proposed for the metal-waste categories. A draft is a prospective restriction, not a present ban, and shipments in 2026 follow the rules in force on their dispatch date.
  • China — SMM reported on 21 October that aluminium scrap prices rose about CNY 50 per tonne in general, with some regions unchanged; spreads to primary aluminium were wider than the day before. Scrap quotes are not outright prices without delivery and tax basis.

Non-ferrous snapshot

Official LME prices (Westmetall) for Tuesday 20 October, USD per tonne, cash / three-month: copper 14,540 / 14,357, aluminium 3,003.50 / 2,997, zinc 3,736 / 3,695, nickel 15,350 / 15,570, lead 1,851 / 1,894, tin 51,200 / 51,000. Zinc stocks in LME warehouses rose 3,275 tonnes to 166,325. Exchange prices are references, not scrap prices — scrap pays by assay and the contractual fixing date.

Glossary

  • CFR — cost and freight: the seller pays ocean freight to the destination port; the buyer carries insurance and transit risk.
  • CFR Port Qasim shredded price (MB-STE-0887) — the Fastmarkets index for shredded scrap delivered to Port Qasim, Pakistan’s main deep-water import terminal near Karachi.
  • HMS 1&2 (80:20) — heavy melting steel, 80% grade 1 and 20% grade 2, a common ferrous scrap benchmark grade.
  • Non-OECD authorised-country list — the EU list of non-OECD countries permitted to receive its waste exports under the revised Waste Shipment Regulation.
  • LME — London Metal Exchange, the benchmark venue behind most base-metal scrap pricing formulas.

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