Local Turkish scrap prices surge on lira basis, no similar trend in dollar prices

Amid the unabated depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, Turkish producers are trying to offset the currency changes by announcing daily increases in their lira-based domestic scrap purchase prices. However, the higher quotations are lagging behind the pace of the exchange rate changes, and so are resulting in decreases in dollar equivalents. Today, November 23, most Turkish steelmakers have revised their local scrap prices up by TRY 250-360/mt, with $10-28/mt decreases in dollar-based quotations, with the US dollar hitting TRY 12.48 at the time of publication. Other mills decided to maintain their local lira-based scrap procurement prices stable, with a $36-49/mt decrease in their prices on dollar basis. 

As a result, the general range in the local Turkish scrap market for the benchmark DKP grade scrap has increased from TRY 4,440-5,535/mt to TRY 4,800-5,680/mt, while on US dollar basis they have been revised down from $395-492/mt to $385-455/mt.

All above prices are for deliveries to customer and exclude VAT. Exchange rate fluctuations are taken into consideration when calculating the dollar-based price changes.

$1 = TRY 12.48