SteelMint learned from industry participants that Turkish scrap importers have witnessed a single deep-sea cargo booking recently on increasingly bearish sentiments. Weakening of Turkish Lira against USD and political tensions pulled prices down further as many of the steel mills were away from buying on staring of Ramadan month. Few steelmakers were interested in bids lower by USD 5-10/MT than current offers amid fall in dockside prices from European and US scrap suppliers.
In a recent deal reported, an Iskenderun based steelmaker has booked a cargo from US-based supplier comprising 23,000 MT HMS 1&2 (80:20) at USD 300/MT and 5,000 MT of Bonus at USD 310/MT, CFR. Prior to this, Izmir based steelmaker booked two German cargoes comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at around USD 295/MT and USD 296/MT, CFR each.
According to SteelMint’s assessment, US origin HMS 1&2 scrap stands at USD 300/MT, CFR Turkey, down USD 2-3/MT as against last week. While an assessment of Europe origin stands at around USD 293-295/MT, CFR. A premium of US material over Northern European scrap stands at around USD 5-7/MT.
Turkish Lira depreciates 8% in a months’ time – Turkish currency lira (TRY) has shown continuous depreciation against USD since almost more than a months’ time. USD/TRY exchange rate stands at 6.17 today with lira depreciating by 3.5% as against 5.96 a week earlier against USD. Notably, TRY has weakened by around 8% against 5.70 levels a month back and dropped lowest levels since Oct’18 hitting buying interest among steelmakers considerably.
Following the weakening of currency, domestic scrap prices in Turkey for ship scrap and autobundle scrap observed correction, however, total scrap requirement for May month is not expected to have fulfilled yet and clarity on prices remained limited. Turkish rebar export offers continued downtrend to USD 470-475/MT, FoB on bearish demand globally for yet another week.
Leave a Reply