Two bookings concluded last week provided the highlight of the Turkish scrap market, which has been quite calm for the last two weeks. In these bookings, where prices were $4/mt lower than the most recent booking concluded by the same trader, HMS I/II 70:30 scrap ex-Europe found buyers at $334/mt CFR Turkey. It is heard that these bookings were concluded at lower prices as compared to the previous ones due to the excess inventories of HMS I/II 60:40 and HMS I/II 70:30 scrap in Europe. Meanwhile, European suppliers have not abandoned their aggressive stance despite the high €/$ exchange rate at the level of around 1.38.
The fact that freight rates continue to hover at high levels has caused HMS I/II 80:20 offers ex-US to remain at $350/mt CFR Turkey recently. No scrap booking from the US has been heard for a long time. Turkish mills, who are not very pleased with the rebar market, are delaying their scrap purchases for now.
With regard to the Black Sea, the tightness in ship availability still stands as a major problem. The rumors regarding the possibility Russia may impose an export duty on grain in an effort to cut grain exports is causing problems for Black Sea scrap suppliers. The fact that grain exporters are renting ships at high freight rates results in lack of availability of ships for scrap exporters. The freight rates from Russia to Turkey have increased to $40/mt for Marmara ports and to $42/mt for Nemrut ports. Recently, there has been a serious decline in scrap bookings from the Black Sea to Turkey in terms of tonnage.
It is thought that the Turkish mills are for the moment managing to get by with small tonnage scrap bookings and with the scrap they obtain from the local market. It is also thought likely that they will defer their scrap purchases till they have a clearer idea about the future of the market.