After the unexpected slight rises in scrap quotations seen last week, the Turkish import scrap market has made a quiet start to the current week in terms of transaction activity. The latest ex-EU deal to Turkey for HMS I/II 75:25 scrap was concluded last week at $290/mt CFR, indicating an increase of $5/mt compared to the transaction level in the previous week. Even though the increases seen in import scrap prices have been received with surprise in the market, Turkish buyers are not ready to pay higher prices given the lack of improvement in demand for their products in both the domestic and export markets and so they have maintained a wait-and-see approach as regards scrap purchases.
The main reason for the increase in scrap prices is believed to be the decreasing scrap flow to scrap yards because of the cold weather. However, it is believed that prices will trend sideways throughout December and it is not clear is any further increases will be seen in the longer run. Currently, fewer scrap offers are heard from the CIS and the US to Turkey due to tightness of supply, while offers from these sources heard have been in the range of $300-310/mt CFR. Meanwhile, ex-EU scrap offers to Turkey are slightly below this range.