Turkey: Steel Mills Book Scrap Aggressively at Increased Prices

Imported scrap prices to Turkey have shot up throughout the ongoing week, with a flurry of deep-sea cargo bookings being concluded in the last few days at sharply increased prices, ahead of upcoming winter vacations in Europe and North America from the next week. Shortage of material availability helped the suppliers keep offers firm, while the necessity of winter restocking pushed most Turkish mills to procure aggressively in spite of the sharp uptrend.

Among the latest deals reported, a West Marmara region based steelmaker in Turkey concluded a bulk vessel from a scrap recycler in USA, with 40,000 MT of mixed cargo, comprising of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 297/MT, CFR, Shredded at USD 302/MT and bonus at USD 307 /MT, CFR Turkey.

Another recent deal involved a Baltic region’s scrap yard selling a bulk vessel to a steel mill in Mediterranean region, which comprised of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 297/MT and bonus at USD 307/MT CFR Turkey level. Further, a booking of HMS 1&2 (90:10) in Bulk vessel was also reported at USD 301/MT CFR.

Earlier this week another deal on prompt shipments basis was concluded, where mill from Turkey’s Black sea region booked a bulk vessel from a major recycling yard of US, comprising of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 295/MT CFR, shredded at USD 300/MT, CFR and P&S at USD 305/MT CFR Turkey, with shipment expected by early Jan’20, while a different Mediterranean region based steelmaker booked a bulk cargo from Baltic supplier which included HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 288/MT, CFR, and Bonus at USD 298 /MT, CFR Turkey, for the latter half of the January 20.

Prior to this, during the opening of the week, a Baltic region based scrap recycler sold a bulk cargo to a Turkish steelmaker based in Aegean region, comprising of HMS 1&2 (80:20) and Bonus scrap booked at USD 289/MT and USD 299/MT respectively CFR Turkey.

After normalizing all the deals in the last few days, SteelMint’s assessment for US-origin HMS (80:20) now stands at USD 297/MT, CFR Turkey, soaring up sharply USD 6-7/MT against the opening of this week, while in the duration of last one week, the assessment has soared up by USD 15/MT. On the other hand, assessment from Europe currently stands at USD 291/MT CFR.