Turkish steel producers made no new scrap bookings on Friday August 27, ending the working week with a single cargo deal amid limited finished steel sales, market participants said.
A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a European cargo on Wednesday, comprising 22,500 tonnes of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) and 12,500 tonnes of bonus at an average price of $450 per tonne cfr. The HMS 1&2 (80:20) price of the cargo was calculated at $443 per tonne cfr, while the bonus price was $463 per tonne.
The country's steel mills have kept their deep-sea purchases slow during the past week due to weak steel sales.
Turkish steelmakers cut their rebar export offers to $670-675 per tonne fob on actual-weight basis this week, from $680-695 per tonne fob last week. But this failed to encourage demand, with no significant export trade heard.
Fastmarkets assessed
steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob main port Turkey at $670-675 per tonne on August 26, down by $10-15 per tonne from $680-690 per tonne one week earlier.
Market participants expect further price declines for both scrap and finished long steel products.
"We expect there will be resistance at a price level of $650 per tonne fob [for rebar exports]. There might be some sales at that level, but if demand does not revive at that point, the market will see some sharp decreases," a trading source said.
As a result of the lack of fresh trading activity, the daily scrap indices remained static at the end of the week.
Fastmarkets' index for steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $444.46 per tonne on Friday, unchanged day on day.
The daily index for steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), United States origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $452.55 per tonne, also flat day on day, leaving the premium for US-origin material over European scrap at $8.09 per tonne.