It is observed that import scrap prices in Turkey have switched to an upward trend over the past week, while the Turkish lira has depreciated sharply against the US dollar in the same period. As these developments have caused uncertainties in the market and also given that China has returned to the international market with lower steel prices after its long national holiday, Turkish billet buyers have been maintaining a wait-and-see stance in order to gain a clearer perspective on the future trend of the market.
In addition to the declines seen in the Chinese steel market, the weak domestic finished steel demand in Turkey has caused Turkish steel mills to slow down their demand for import scrap following the deal concluded last weekend, and this in turn has exerted downward pressure on import scrap offers. Meanwhile, Turkish billet buyers are in no rush to conclude new deals, while demand in the local Turkish billet market is still at low levels.
Despite the rises seen in import scrap prices in Turkey during the past week, Turkish steel producers have reduced their billet offers by $5/mt on the lower end week on week to $495-510/mt ex-works with the influence of the weakness of demand.
It is observed that ex-CIS billet offers to Turkey have also moved down, declining by $10/mt on the upper end week on week to $490-510/mt CFR. However, Turkish buyers believe that the ongoing downward movement of ex-CIS billet prices may continue for some time and so they show no demand for billet from the CIS region, with no new deals concluded in the past week.
Chinese billet export quotations to the international markets are standing at $487-496/mt FOB today, October 11, though market sources report that Chinese suppliers are not submitting many offers to their export markets.