TOKYO — Tokyo Steel Co. Ltd. has raised its scrap purchase prices for a second time within a week to the highest level since March 2012 in response to a large jump in the latest export auction prices.

The Tokyo-based company, Japan’s largest electric-arc furnace operator and unofficial benchmark price-setter, has increased its buying prices for shipments to all five of its works by 500 yen ($5.22) per tonne.

Prices for H2-grade scrap (a mix of No. 1 and No. 2 heavy melt) are now at 34,500 yen ($360.23) per tonne for arrivals at the companies Kyushu and Okayama plants, 35,000 yen ($365.45) per tonne for arrivals at its Tahara and Utsunomiya plants, and 33,500 yen ($349.79) per tonne for those to its Takamatsu facility.

The increase was sparked by a 4-percent jump in the latest export tender by Tokyo-area scrap dealers early during the week of March 11, with the average winning bid for deliveries of H2-grade scrap for April rising by 1,337 yen ($13.97) per tonne month on month to 34,915 yen ($364.42) per tonne f.a.s. This represents a more than 50-percent rise in Japanese export prices for scrap over the past five months, putting export prices at their highest level in more than a year.

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Steel First.