Turkey: Steel Mills Continue Deep Sea Scrap Cargo Bookings

Imported scrap prices to Turkey had been gaining strength over the last one week, with numerous bulk bookings getting concluded at successively increasing prices, as mills looked to secure material when scrap inflow and collection rates in Europe still remained quite slow.  However, the uptrend was halted when a latest deep-sea cargo booking confirmed today, witnessed a slight drop in prices.

In the latest deal, a USA based recycler sold a mixed grade bulk cargo to a Western Marmara region based major steelmaker, comprising of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 249/MT CFR, Shredded at USD 254/MT CFR, and Bonus (P&S) at USD 259/MT CFR Turkey.  The shipment is expected for the first half of Jun’20.

Before this, the same steelmaker had already booked 2 bulk cargoes last week, one each from Baltic and UK based recyclers at USD, having now booked close to a 100,000 MT of mixed grade scrap by itself, in just a week.

Prior to this latest booking, a Mediterranean based steelmaker recently booked a 35,000 MT composite cargo from another Latvia based recycler from Baltic, consisting of 24,000 MT HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 252/MT and 11,000 MT P&S at USD 262/MT CFR Turkey, for June shipment.

In the latter half of last week, a couple of Baltic origin cargoes had been sold at USD 251.5 – 252/MT CFR for HMS 1&2 (80:20), and UK origin material had been sold at USD 245-246/MT CFR, which had put the price of USA origin material at around USD 253/MT CFR Turkey for HMS 1&2 (80:20) by end of last week.

On normalizing the last bookings, SteelMint’s assessment for USA origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) now stands at USD 249/MT CFR, down by USD 4/MT against last week’s closing. While the assessment for European origin stands at USD 244/MT CFR.

According to sources, workable price by Turkish mills stand in the range of USD 245-255/MT CFR, and prices are likely to move in this range itself, while no sharp drop in prices is being expected by market participants due to continued low scrap availability in major export markets, and demand gradually picking up at the same time.