Little ex-US scrap has been sent overseas over the past couple weeks, and dealers are unsure as to when activity and prices will pick up. Sources tell SteelOrbis that one reason for the quiet was the ISRI conference in Las Vegas, Nevada this past week, and regular activity is likely to resume in the coming days. But even as business returns to normal, no surge in cargo bookings is expected. On the US East Coast, no new scrap cargos were sold to Turkey last week after about 15-16 cargos were booked earlier in the month; the cargos were loaded and shipped over the last two weeks. As a result, Turkish mills' inventories may be sufficient in the immediate future. Two weeks ago, bulk scrap cargos from the US East Coast to Turkey were sold for about $445-$450/mt CFR.
The export scrap market is similarly quiet on the US West Coast. According to SteelOrbis sources, mills in Taiwan and the Far East are entering a time of the year where electricity costs are especially high, making it difficult to sell finished steel for a strong profit, and have therefore slowed their scrap bookings from the US and overall activity remains steady to weak. The last HMS I container scrap prices sold to Taiwan from the US went for $435-$440/mt CFR, down about $10/mt from our last report two weeks ago, but only a drop of $5/mt since last week.