Posted on 05 Nov 2020
All Turkish steelmakers have increased their domestic scrap buying prices this week. Blast furnace mills, which kept domestic scrap prices unchanged for a month, have announced higher increases this week compared to electric arc furnace mills, Kallanish observes.
Imported HMS 1&2 80:20 prices from the US have meanwhile continued increasing this week, while the same grade from the Baltic remains unchanged.
A mill in southern Turkey has bought HMS 80:20 at $296.5/tonne, shredded $301.5/t and bonus grade $306.5/t cfr Turkey from a US supplier. In the previous HMS 80:20 booking last week, HMS 80:20 corresponded to $295/t cfr. Two mills concluded HMS 80:20 purchases from the Baltic at $293/t and $293.5/t cfr respectively. Meanwhile, the same grade from the EU has been bought by a Marmara mill at $289/t cfr. Turkish mills are expected to continue purchasing December-shipment cargoes.
While Turkish mills continue buying scrap, they are struggling to deal with the sharp fluctuation of the lira against other currencies.
A Turkish scrap yard told Kallanish on Wednesday: “Business has become harder due to the highly volatile exchange rates. Mills have been forced to increase domestic scrap prices. Our prices become cheaper each day with the depreciation of the lira.”
Due to the weaker domestic currency, Turkish producers are gradually increasing their domestic rebar offers on a lira basis, despite the low levels of demand. Mills have also further increased their export prices due to livelier demand abroad.
Scrap flow in Turkey’s domestic market is at regular levels. New measures against Covid-19 are yet to impact scrap collection.
Current Turkish shipbreaking scrap prices stand at $280/t delivered, unchanged on-week. Auto bundle scrap prices in the Aegean region increased by TRY 10/t to TRY 2,210/t ($260). However, they are still below last week's level of $265/t.
Source:Kallanish
