Following their upward movement at the beginning of March, import scrap prices in Turkey started to decline last week amid slower demand from Turkish steel mills and have continued their downward trend since then. Turkish steel producers are now postponing their scrap purchases. After the ex-Europe scrap deals concluded at the end of last week for HMS I/II 80:20 at $285/mt CFR, new ex-Europe scrap transactions have been heard in Turkey this week, but SteelOrbis has confirmed that these deals were actually concluded in the middle of last week when prices were moving on a sharp downtrend. The average price level in the deals in question was $280/mt CFR.
While ex-US and ex-Baltic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap quotations were at $295/mt CFR before the above ex-Europe scrap bookings were concluded, this price level has since lost its validity. Turkish steel mills have started to postpone their scrap purchases as they are experiencing problems with their finished steel sales in both domestic and export markets and are also failing to achieve their targeted finished steel price levels. Most market players are waiting for the SteelOrbis 2017 Spring Conference & 76th IREPAS Meeting, which will be held in Budapest with approximately 350 attendees, to make better predictions regarding the future of the market and to meet with suppliers and customers. It is believed that new scrap deals may be concluded at the IREPAS event.