Turkish producers, who halted their scrap purchases with the start of Ramadan, have finally restarted their purchasing activities as of last week. In addition to small tonnage ex-Black Sea bookings, approximately twelve deep sea cargo bookings have been concluded.
Ex-US scrap price have entered a declining phase, due to the slowdown both in the US domestic market and in demand from its export markets. The latest booking heard last week for HMS I/II 80/20 has declined to $311/mt CFR from the peak level of $324/mt CFR in early August. Also, last week in Turkey there were many bookings ex-Europe, the prices of which have fallen as low as $304/mt CFR for HMS I/II 70/30.
A3 grade scrap ex-Black Sea also remains on a downward trend. Following the bookings ex-Romania and ex-Russia at the end of last week at levels of $308-310/mt CFR Marmara and $310-312/mt CFR Nemrut respectively, the most recent cargo ex-Romania concluded yesterday indicated a further decline to $305/mt CFR Marmara. New offers standing today at $305/mt CFR Marmara have not been accepted by steel producers. Acceptable price levels of A3 grade scrap for steel producers are currently at, or even below, $300/mt CFR.
Turkish producers have restarted their long awaited scrap purchases as of last week. However, the scrap demand in the Far East has not revived yet, and therefore there is a common expectation in the market that room still exists for scrap prices to slip further. This expectation may result in Turkish producers preferring to adopt a wait-and-see strategy and to hold back from further buying activity this week.