Scrap purchasing activities have almost stopped as a result of the absence of Turkish steel producers from the market. Many scrap suppliers are ready to sell material both in Europe and the US; however, buyers are not considering any offers for the time being.
A producer sold a US cargo composed of 13,000 mt of HMS I/II 90:10 and 7,000 mt of shredded scrap at $365/mt CFR last week. Also, a HMS I/II 80:20 cargo ex-UK was sold at $357/mt CFR. With this booking, the price of HMS I/II 80:20 from Europe came down further. HMS I/II 70:30 offers ex-Europe continue to maintain their levels at $350/mt CFR.
A3 grade scrap offers ex-Black Sea are also at lower levels compared to last week. A3 grade ex-Romania in the meantime is at around $355/mt CFR, with the buyers' price idea below this level.
Scrap offers ex-Israel are in the range of $310-320/mt CFR.
Turkish producers seem to feel comfortable about scrap availability for the moment and believe they will be able to find quite a number of offers once they return to the market. For this reason, they do not appear to be in any rush to conclude bookings for now. If this situation persists, it will place further downward pressure on scrap prices.