In Turkey's import BPI market, the tradable level for ex-Russia material has remained stable at $380-385/mt CFR, due to rather stable scrap prices. However, in fact, there have been no firm FOB prices available due to the big challenges facing shipments.
In particular, freight rates have increased due to much higher war-related risks and are now at $35-40/mt at the lowest or even up to $45-50/mt, while last week freight form the Black Sea to the Marmara region had been assessed at $30-35/mt and “normal” levels were even at $20-25/mt. “It's become physically more difficult to find vessels ready to go to Novo. But there have been some shipments of small volumes over the past week,” a market source said.
With increased freight rates and no possibility of pushing CFR prices for now, the SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI has settled at $340-360/mt FOB Black Sea, dropping by $10-20/mt over the week from $360-370/mt FOB.
“On the one hand, Turkey is on vacation, and no one is seriously fixing the price, especially given the difficulties with the freight. On the other hand, Turkey is used to getting 150,000-200,000 mt of Russian pig iron per month. It could be partially replaced with scrap, but then the scrap market will rise and pig iron will follow suit. And freight at $40/mt will no longer be a problem,” a market source said.
