While Turkish mills, according to sources, have been seeking to buy deep sea premium scrap cargoes at $440/mt CFR and below for HMS I/II 80:20, some of the sellers have shown certain resistance and refused to provide such significant discounts. As a result, a cargo was booked from Sweden to the Marmara region and the buyer has agreed to pay $465/mt CFR for 7,000 mt of HMS I/II 80:20, $485/mt CFR for 10,000 mt of shredded and $485/mt CFR for 11,000 mt of bonus scrap. With this sale, ex-Baltic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap indication decreased by $12.54/mt on average from the previous level. Many sources believe that the market is close to the bottom and the coming deals are expected to be signed mainly at $460-465/mt CFR. “This mill [the buyer from Sweden] is a low payer, so if they started to buy then the bottom is near,” a trader said.
The downward sentiment, which prevailed in the deep sea scrap segment early this week, have negatively affected the situation in the short sea market. According to sources, while trying to get $430-440/mt CFR from the deep sea suppliers, some mills were pushing for $400/mt CFR and below for some short sea origins. As a result, some sellers chose to trade a total of 11,000 mt of HMS I/II 80:20 scrap for June shipment from Romania to the buyers in the Marmara and Izmir regions at $390-391/mt CFR, SteelOrbis has learned. The previous offers were at $420-435/mt CFR from both Romania and Bulgaria. However, despite that the sales level is quite aggressive, the situation might change soon. “With the deep sea fixed now at $465/mt CFR, short sea might normalize and return to $430-440/mt CFR in targets,” a large trader said.