New deals closed over the past few days have indicated that Turkish mills’ strategy of holding back in order to curb the upward trend of deep sea scrap prices has been relatively successful.
An ex-Sweden booking done by an Izmir-based producer for HMS I/II 80:20 scrap at $375/mt CFR, with shredded and bonus at $395/mt CFR, indicates a $2/mt increase for ex-Baltic scrap prices. However, market sources point out that this supplier is usually paid a similar level to ex-US prices and represents the higher end of ex-Baltic bookings. As a result, SteelOrbis’ ex-Baltic scrap reference prices have moved up from $373/mt CFR to $373-375/mt CFR.
The ex-US scrap deal done by another Izmir-based producer has not been confirmed by the buyer or the seller at the time of publication. The rumor is that the HMS I/II 90:10 scrap price in the transaction is at $378/mt CFR, with bonus grade at $395/mt CFR. This deal also indicates that a slight decline in ex-US bookings has been achieved, with a lowering of prices by $1/mt.
Germany-based sub-collectors report that scrap flow to their yards has not improved and that the cold weather in the region is negatively impacting availability. The same is seen in the US, while local US scrap prices are set to increase during the February buy-cycle.
As a result, the firm trend of Turkey’s import scrap market is expected to continue in the coming days, with a small tendency to increase.
