<article><p class="lead">Turkish ferrous scrap imports fell by more than a fifth on the year in August, as steel mills continued reducing deepsea output because of falling overseas rebar demand.</p><p>Turkey imported 1.49mn t of ferrous scrap in August, down by 18.6pc from 1.83mn t in July and by 21.3pc from 1.9mn t in August 2018.</p><p>Turkish mills imported less scrap this year only in January, February and June, following a cut of 25-33pc capacity in utilisation rates over the winter of 2018-19.</p><p>Some Turkish mills were heard to have cut production rates further in late June as the weight of pressure from low steel demand persisted domestically and overseas.</p><p>Turkish mills were purchasing deepsea scrap on a three five-week lead time, on average, during the summer months. They began reducing imported volumes at the end of May after export rebar prices had increased to too high a level for other overseas importers, following on from strong Turkish rebar sales in May.</p><p><i>Argus</i>' cfr Turkey steel scrap assessment consequently fell to $278.50/t cfr Turkey on 19 June from $314.90/t cfr Turkey on 28 May. Mills' July imports will come from material purchased during this period.</p><p>Turkish imports of US-origin material in August were down by 13.1pc on the month, falling to 292,432t from 336,448t in July.</p><p>Russian shipments fell by 27.3pc to 201,572t in August from 277,343t a month earlier.</p><p>Imports from the Netherlands totalled 174,065t, down from 203,366t in July.</p><p>Turkish imports of Germany-origin material fell to 57,140t in August from 82,378t in July.</p><p>Turkish imports of UK-origin material stood at 181,652t in August compared to 205,430t in July.</p></article>
