Turkish scrap imports down by more than 20pc in August

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Argus' 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.

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.

Russian shipments fell by 27.3pc to 201,572t in August from 277,343t a month earlier.

Imports from the Netherlands totalled 174,065t, down from 203,366t in July.

Turkish imports of Germany-origin material fell to 57,140t in August from 82,378t in July.

Turkish imports of UK-origin material stood at 181,652t in August compared to 205,430t in July.