Turkey, the world's largest seaborne scrap importer, has been booking containerised material from the UK.
The move was initiated by Switzerland-headquartered Stelaris Resources, which executed containerised HMS 1/2 scrap deliveries from the UK to Iskenderun.
Two UK suppliers, Mellor Metals and Glazewing, supplied the first two lots. Turkey imports approximately 75pc of its scrap needs, with around 80pc of that arriving on bulk carriers from Europe, the UK, Scandinavia and the US.
Maritime containerised scrap trade had until now been exclusively conducted for Asian destinations such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Stelaris redirected some volumes to Turkey because of low Asian demand and freight economics increasingly favouring container logistics.
For Turkish mills, buying in containers is strategically transformative, enabling precise top-ups on specific qualities and grades, access to geographies previously uneconomical for bulk shipment, and, critically, direct delivery to inland mills that lack deepwater port access. This represents a meaningful diversification of supply at a time when steel scrap availability is increasingly constrained by local market competition.
Turkey's entry into containerised trade could alter global dynamics. Suppliers that previously routed containers exclusively to the Indian subcontinent now have access to the world's largest buyer. The timing is consequential — south Asia has lost an estimated 2mn t/yr of Mideast Gulf supply because of the regional conflict, tightening already constrained supply.
At the same time, Turkey's total scrap imports fell by 7pc in 2025 to 18.67mn t, making flexible, targeted procurement using containers opportunistically valuable.
Industry observers expect containerised volumes to Turkey to grow steadily as logistical networks mature. And these sales could be replicated in other markets and trade routes.
Turkish direct-reduced iron imports grew significantly last year, as the country's mills continued to battle high costs and lower availability of bulk scrap. Hot-briquetted iron (HBI) arrivals in January alone almost tripled on the year to close to 313,000t. Pig iron imports also rose, with 2.3mn t imported in 2025, up from 1.5mn t in 2024.
