Turkish scrap market silent ahead of long holiday

Turkish mills are not rushing to complete August shipment scrap purchases before a long Eid al-Adha holiday, which will stretch from 19-26 July, Kallanish reports.

Despite Turkish mills’ ongoing requirement for August shipment scrap purchases, they have ended the last week before the holiday with only a few bookings. While some market players think they may buy during the holiday as they did in the previous years, some think they will delay as long as they can in order to exert pressure on prices.

There are US-origin HMS 1&2 80:20 offers at $485/t cfr in the market. Mills, however, are seen targeting to buy at $470/t cfr levels. For European scrap, mills are seen targeting low $460/t levels while European suppliers seem willing to lower their offer prices at $475/t cfr by up to $470/t cfr levels.

In the short-sea market, a decrease is observed in the number of offers from Ukraine and Russia. Approaching August, suppliers who were active in the first half of July, are seen to have backed off due to Russia’s expected tax increase on scrap exports as of August. Romanian offers are seen standing at $450/t cfr levels.

Wire rod export sales, meanwhile, which have been steadily decreasing since the beginning of 2020, remained low this week. Turkish producers’ offers for mesh-quality rod decreased by $10/t to $815-835/t fob Turkey, depending on the producers’ utilisation level. However, offers at above $850/t fob are also available from some producers. Turkish rod producers have concluded sales to Bulgaria and Israel this week. Latin American demand has remained quite weak compared to previous months.

Burcak Alpman Turkey