Today, March 11, somewhat older ex-EU scrap deals have been disclosed in Turkey’s import scrap market. Market players think that Turkey still needs significant amounts of deep sea scrap, though it is observed that Turkish mills are taking a step back to evaluate the market situation. “The Turkish scrap market may remain silent until the second half of next week,” a source commented. According to another source, “The price levels voiced for the ex-EU deals today are not considered to be workable right now. Turkish mills are asking for lower quotations.”
SteelOrbis has learned that an ex-UK deal was concluded on Tuesday, March 8, by a Marmara-based producer for 15,000 mt of shredded scrap at $675/mt CFR and 10,000 mt of busheling scrap at $723/mt CFR, for April shipment. Since this cargo does not include any HMS I/II 80:20 scrap, SteelOrbis considers that estimations may cause a deviation for the benchmark grade price.
Meanwhile, two more reports of ex-EU scrap deals have been disclosed to the market. The first cargo was transacted from Hamburg to an Iskenderun-based mill and consists of HMS I/II 75:25 scrap at $645/mt CFR and shredded scrap at $685/mt CFR. Another cargo was sold from Germany to Izmir with HMS I/II 80:20 scrap standing at $640/mt CFR. These deals have not been confirmed by the parties involved, though they are largely believed to have in fact been done. As a result, SteelOrbis has revised its reference price up to $640-645/mt CFR for European HMS I/II 80:20 scrap.
Turkish mills’ appetite for deep sea scrap has slowed down slightly, according to market sources. “They are waiting to see if prices have room to move down,” a source added. However, most sellers believe that Turkey cannot wait for long before restarting deep sea scrap purchases as it needs a lot of tonnages for the coming period on the back of its recent semi-finished and finished steel sales. SteelOrbis has learned that a European scrap seller offered HMS I/II 80:20 scrap to Turkey this week at $660/mt CFR, which was not accepted by buyers. Another European scrap seller reported that Turkish mills’ ideas for European HMS I/II 80:20 scrap are at around $635-640/mt CFR as of today.
A supplier from the US stated that sellers’ ideas for US origin HMS I/II 80:20 scrap are in the range of $660-665/mt CFR. This SteelOrbis contact added, “No one in Turkey will accept this price right now, but the offers from the US to Turkey are now for late April, and there is no way to estimate the freight for that period.” SteelOrbis understands that US sellers are in no rush to conclude sales to Turkey under these conditions. The lack of pig iron is taking its toll on the market too, with one source commenting, “The gap between higher grades and HMS I/II 80:20 scrap should increase in the coming period.”
Several sources from the EU and the US believe that, even though Turkey’s import scrap market can take a break for a short time, prices will continue to move up in the coming round of deals. “The margin between rebar and scrap or billet and scrap is too high, and sellers would not want to give up the whole of this margin to mills,” one market player commented.
