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Daily Market Note — 2026-10-22

5 min read

Daily Market Note — 2026-10-22

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

The read

No new Pakistan shredded print; the published level is still the 16 October one, with the next weekly print due Friday 23 October. 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. SMM lists its own ISRI 211 shredded Port Qasim assessment with a 21 October date, but the number is not publicly visible, and BigMint’s 21 October Europe-origin container entry carries a sentiment label without a public price. No Pakistan mill bid or concluded booking was verifiable today, so today’s moves are in currency, fuel, metals and shipping expectations rather than in the scrap price itself.

Key moves

  • Pakistan rupee — about PKR 276.85 per US dollar at the 22 October interbank close, one paisa stronger than 276.86 on 21 October. Importers settle at their bank’s rate and charges.
  • Pakistan diesel — the high-speed diesel price is PKR 390.11 per litre on 22 October, up 0.31 from 389.80; too small on its own to reset container haulage quotes.
  • Thailand — Bangkok Biz News reported on 21 October a Thai Customs recommendation to prohibit scrap-metal and rubber imports with a six-to-twelve-month transition; Thai PBS (22 October) pointed to agency coordination. No enacted instrument or effective date has been found, so it is a proposal, and any redirection of cargo toward other buyers is an inference, not an observed flow.
  • India — BigMint’s public board shows an LMS reference of INR 35,300 dated 21 October, unchanged from 19 October; the weight unit and tax basis are not shown, so it is not comparable with imported shredded.

Freight and shipping

  • Suez — Reuters reported on 22 October that Kuehne+Nagel’s chief executive does not expect most container lines back on the Suez route before late Q1 or early Q2 2027. That is an expectation; individual carriers’ routing differs.
  • Gulf risk — ICE front-month Brent was about 113.17 USD a barrel on 22 October, up from 108.82 on 21 October. Active Gulf navigation warnings (NGA) stayed at 19, so that gauge still does not track the oil move. Singapore’s maritime authority has confirmed the container ship GFS Pride sank; Fastmarkets (14 October) and SteelOrbis (15 October) reported it carried scrap bound for Pakistan, but no manifest or verified tonnage has been published. No carrier war-risk surcharge or insurer exclusion on Pakistan services has been reported.
  • Port Qasim and Karachi — the Port Qasim Authority programme for 22 October lists four planned berthings and four planned departures; Karachi Port Trust’s 22-23 October board shows 16 expected arrivals and three sailings. Scheduled calls are not completed movements or space.
  • Intra-Asia — Drewry’s Intra-Asia Container Index was 1,459 USD per 40ft container on 22 October, up 6 from 15 October. It is not a Pakistan rate.

Supplier markets

  • EU — the Commission’s draft list of non-OECD countries that could receive EU waste was published on 18 September; the feedback period closed on 16 October and adoption is upcoming without a date. BIR said on 19 October it asked for the consultation to run to no earlier than 13 November (not granted) and expects the list around 21 November, with the new regime applying from 21 May 2027. Trade reporting says Pakistan is not proposed for relevant ferrous and non-ferrous streams in the draft. A draft is a prospective restriction, not a present ban.
  • United States — Union Pacific’s Week 41 report (11-17 October) shows 1,176 iron and steel scrap carloads against 933 a year earlier (+26%, rounded); waste and non-ferrous scrap carloads fell 13% to 833. One railroad’s traffic is not national volume or exports.
  • China and recycled aluminium — SMM reported cast aluminium alloy ingot inventories of 22,300 tonnes (down 2,900 on the week, a fifth weekly fall) and a steady 52.1% operating rate at leading secondary aluminium producers, with constrained compliant scrap supply and weak end-use orders. Gränges reported recycled aluminium inputs of 85,000 tonnes in Q3 (75,000 a year earlier).

Non-ferrous snapshot

Official LME prices (Westmetall) for Wednesday 21 October, USD per tonne, cash / three-month: copper 14,441 / 14,315, aluminium 3,031 / 3,024.50, zinc 3,771 / 3,724. A brokerage note dated 22 October (Archer Financial Services) indicated lower prices across base metals, with copper near 14,085 (-1.8%); these are intraday indications, not settlements. 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.
  • ISRI 211 — the US trade-association specification for shredded steel scrap.
  • 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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