TDC Ventures

Daily Market Note — 2026-10-14

5 min read

Daily Market Note — 2026-10-14

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

The read

Pakistan’s imported shredded market still has no openly visible numeric price, and shipping risk near Hormuz rose today on a documented event. BigMint’s Europe-origin containerised shredded CFR Qasim entry now carries a 14 October date and SMM’s ISRI 211 CFR Port Qasim page a 13 October date, but both values sit behind login. The CFR Port Qasim shredded price (Fastmarkets, index MB-STE-0887) publishes weekly on Fridays, so the next print is 16 October. Trade press describes Pakistani import buying as subdued, with payment concerns and broadly steady UK and EU shredded offers; no concluded Pakistan CFR shredded trade dated 14 October was found in public sources. Separately, Reuters reported that a Singapore-flagged container ship was sunk near the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile.

Key moves

  • Pakistan imported shredded — no public numeric assessment or verified concluded trade dated 14 October.
  • Pakistan domestic signal — BigMint’s Punjab domestic shredded entry for 13 October is marked “Weak”. A Pakistan Steel Mills disposal tender (mixed steel scrap, blooms, billet end cuts, hot-rolled sheet and girders) closed at 10:00 Pakistan time today; the listed reserves work out to about PKR 141,000/t and PKR 140,000/t. Reserves are not winning bids and not an import benchmark; no award had been published in the sources checked.
  • Pakistan currency and fuel — the rupee closed at PKR 276.95 per USD (276.96 on 13 October). High-speed diesel is PKR 396.82 per litre, down PKR 0.03; petrol is PKR 392.66, down PKR 2.71.
  • India — BigMint’s public display shows Mandi Gobindgarh LMS (delivered-at-place) at INR 35,350, up INR 250 from the retained 13 October level; its end-cutting index is INR 41,100/t (+300). Tax basis and comparators are not fully stated.
  • Japan and US — Tokyo Steel’s JPY 1,000/t increase is unchanged from yesterday’s schedule, not new. AISI weekly capacity utilisation for the week ended 10 October was 77.8%.

Freight and shipping

  • Hormuz — the container ship GFS Pride (2,824 TEU) sank near the Strait after a projectile strike; Singapore’s maritime authority said all 21 crew were evacuated without reported injury. Brent traded around $105.56 per barrel intraday (Reuters, 13:25 UTC). The public Gulf navigation-warning count was unchanged, so that proxy does not mirror the incident. One casualty does not show that every Pakistan service is disrupted; carrier acceptance and war-risk cover should be confirmed route by route.
  • Port Qasim — the 14 October programme lists two scheduled sailings and four scheduled berthings. These are schedule entries, not proof of discharge.
  • Carrier charges — Maersk’s Nordic store-door emergency inland fuel surcharges took effect 14 October (Latvia 16%, Lithuania 5%, Estonia 20%, Denmark 14%, Sweden 12%, Finland 7%, Norway 0%); they apply to inland services, not to ocean freight generally. Maersk’s earlier peak-season surcharge of USD 300 per 20-foot container on certain North Europe and Mediterranean-to-Pakistan movements has applied since 15 August “until further notice”, subject to carrier, route and booking date. Scrap into Pakistan moves in 20-foot containers at about 25 t, so USD 300 per box is about USD 12 per tonne where it applies.

Supplier markets

  • EU — the consultation on the draft list of non-OECD countries authorised to receive EU waste closes on 16 October 2026. BIR reports that Pakistan’s ferrous and non-ferrous metal-waste categories are not authorised in the current draft. List publication is scheduled for 21 November 2026 and the new prohibition applies from 21 May 2027. Authorisations are waste-code-specific and the list can be revised; this is a draft, not final law.
  • UAE — Dubai Customs Notice 13/2026 restricts selected iron and steel (HS 7204), copper (HS 7404) and aluminium (HS 7602) scrap exports; it renews automatically after 8 October unless cancelled, and no authenticated cancellation was found.
  • United States — SteelOrbis reports US scrap exports rose 2.0% month on month in August, with 313,963 mt to Türkiye (+6.2%). Only the public teaser was available.

Non-ferrous snapshot

Official LME prices for 13 October (Westmetall): copper cash USD 14,741.00 / three-month 14,625.50 (three-month −32.00 on the day); aluminium 3,036.00 / 3,037.00; zinc 3,821.00 / 3,756.00; nickel 15,445.00 / 15,630.00; lead 1,860.00 / 1,895.50. LME copper registered stocks fell 1,625 t to 229,650 t. Cochilco’s 14 October benchmarks show copper cash at USD 14,751 (+10). Reuters notes physical aluminium supply chains remain strained despite headline prices above USD 3,000/t. Chile: a planned Escondida strike was suspended after a preliminary agreement, with the ratification result not confirmed. SMM holds ADC12 aluminium alloy at CNY 24,500/mt, unchanged.

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.
  • ISRI 211 — the US scrap-industry specification for shredded steel scrap.
  • PSS — peak-season surcharge: a carrier charge added to base ocean freight in high-demand periods.
  • 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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