While Turkish steel producers continued their deep sea
scrap purchases last week, at the same time an increase has been observed in the number of short sea
scrap purchases concluded in
Turkey. While deep sea
scrap prices for
Turkey have remained stable since the first week of May, very slight declines have been seen in short sea
scrap quotations. In the current week, no new deep sea
scrap deal has yet been heard in
Turkey, while the most recent deep sea deal in the country for HMS I/II 80:20
scrap was concluded at around $272/mt CFR. In the meantime, short sea
scrap transaction prices for
Turkey have been in the range of $256/mt-263/mt CFR, depending on the country and destination. In the latest transactions, Romanian A3 grade
scrap was priced at $259/mt CFR Marmara, while the price of Bulgarian A3 grade
scrap was in the range of $256-257/mt CFR Marmara.
Recently, prices in the local Turkish rebar market have become an important topic of discussion. Turkish construction companies are complaining about high domestic rebar prices and also about the problems they are facing due to the tightness of supply in the local Turkish rebar market, while they have expectations that some corrective measures will be enacted by the Turkish authorities. This situation has caused demand for finished steel in the local Turkish market to decline slightly. While Turkish mills have been going through a difficult period as regards export sales, demand for Turkish rebar has declined further due to Ramadan. As a result, the decreases seen in domestic rebar demand in
Turkey is expected to exert additional downward pressure on Turkish steel mills' import
scrap purchase prices.