In the last session of the SteelOrbis Spring '12 Conference & 66th IREPAS Meeting held in London on April 1-3, long product and billet suppliers and producers, as well as traders and raw material suppliers, shared the conclusions reached at their special committee meetings regarding the current situation in the markets with the general participants at the event.
Ioannis Meimaroglu from Helveco Intertrade, the chairman of the raw materials committee, said that
scrap collection levels are currently lower than normal. In some places, like
Russia, according to the raw materials committee, this situation has been due to severe winter weather conditions, but generally is due to low market price levels, which are not attractive for local suppliers. Mr. Meimaroglu pointed out that there are new threats which may place pressure on
scrap prices, such as freight rate increases and cost increases in some countries, and such as the recent energy cost increase in
Turkey. "If such costs are not absorbed by the end products market, the consequences for
scrap collection will be very important," Mr. Meimaroglu warned. The raw materials committee also stated that domestic
scrap production in
Turkey has indicated remarkable growth lately, though still falling short of consumption levels.
Scrap demand remains strong in
Europe, in the
US and
Russia. Ex-short sea
scrap suppliers, especially from the Black Sea, expressed the view that it will be very difficult for them to increase their
scrap collection volumes due to the price policy of the steel producers. Finally, as regards the coming two months, the lack of container availability is expected to cause
scrap supply problems to India and to the Far East in general.