WEEKLY SCRAP WRAP: Turkish prices cool off, Asian markets strengthen

Turkish producers continued to book scrap cargoes despite weakening steel demand in the country, while Asian markets registered modest gains over the working week ended Friday May 15.

  • Turkish mills book seven scrap cargoes
  • US scrap export market expecting dip in Turkish market
  • Vietnam enters market for Japanese and US scrap
  • Taiwanese prices remain rangebound
  • Indian sentiment improves slightly on return of some mills

Turkey
Turkish prices jumped at the beginning of the week but by Friday, they came back down to the level of the previous week, market participants told Fastmarkets.

A steel mill in the Marmara region was heard to have booked a European cargo comprising 20,000 tonnes of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) priced at $238 per tonne cfr, 6,000 tonnes of shredded scrap at $243 per tonne cfr and 6,000 tonnes of bonus scrap at $248 per tonne cfr.

That followed bookings made by Turkish mills earlier in the week of HMS 1&2 (80:20) cargoes from the Baltic Sea region at $250-252 per tonne cfr and from the United States East Coast at $249-252 per tonne cfr.

In total, Fastmarkets heard a total of seven cargoes procured by Turkish mills – totalling 195,000 tonnes – over the week.

“The number of offers I receive from the scrap merchants has increased sharply. But Turkish mills are not purchasing [the same amount of] scrap as they used to do because of the weak rebar market,” a Turkish mill source said.

Pricing history
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), Northern Europe origin, cfr Turkey
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), US origin, cfr Turkey

United States
US export scrap market participants told Fastmarkets that they were expecting to see lower selling prices to Turkey because rebar-scrap margins in the latter had dipped way below break-even levels of $170 per tonne.

Pricing history
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), export index, fob New York
steel scrap shredded scrap, export index, fob New York
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), export index, fob Los Angeles

Vietnam
Vietnamese ferrous scrap demand rose last week, with a spate of deals for Japanese H2 scrap and at least one booking of a deep-sea cargo from the US at the end of the week.

Pricing history
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam

Taiwan
Prices for containerized HMS sold to Taiwan continued to trend upward last week but struggled to break through the $230-per-tonne-cfr threshold.

Pricing history
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US material import, cfr main port Taiwan

India
Prices for shredded scrap sold to India moved upward last Friday after more steel mills restarted their operations and re-entered the market for scrap. Prices for HMS sold to the country remained flat.

Pricing history
steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India