After many weeks of trending up, local scrap purchase prices in Russia may start decreasing due to a combination of factors. One is the approved export duty which will be valid for shipments after February 1. Another one is the trend reversal in Turkey’s import scrap market.
Exporters’ purchase prices for A3 grade scrap in the St. Petersburg region have increased over the past two weeks by $10-11/mt (RUB 700-800/mt) to $347/mt (RUB 25,500-25,600/mt) CPT, SteelOrbis has learned. “Everyone wants to ship before the duties. The material availability is scarce plus the winter conditions, etc,” a local source said.
Local mills’ purchase prices have remained relatively stable over the past week at $367/mt (RUB 27,000/mt) CPT in central Russia and at $344/mt (RUB 25,300/mt) CPT in the Ural region.
As a result, scrap prices in Russia for now remain firm, but most market players anticipate some downturn. Specifically, such an expectation originates from the weaker Turkish scrap market where short sea deals from the EU at $447/mt CFR for HMS I/II 80:20 are being discussed by market players. However, it is worth mentioning that these levels are considered to be too low by the majority of steel market players and deep sea cargoes are still to be priced at higher levels, SteelOrbis understands.
Prices exclude 20 percent VAT.
$1 = RUB 73.54