Turkey ferrous: Price largely flat, availability shows

The Turkish scrap import price edged down 50¢/t on Friday on a Baltic sale to an Iskenderun mill this morning for April shipment.

The Argus daily steel scrap HMS 1/2 80:20 cfr Turkey assessment decreased 50c/t to $460/t.

A Baltic exporter sold 28,000t of HMS 1/2 80:20 at $460/t and 7,000t of bonus at $470/t cfr Iskenderun for second half April shipment today.

The Baltic exporter sold two other cargoes for first half April shipment earlier this week.

Six deep-sea deals have been heard concluded throughout this week, and a total of 20 deep-sea deals have been done in the past 13 days in a $16.50/t range.

Three other Baltic exporters offered cargoes today, including one for end of March shipment. The supplier of that cargo has not sold to Turkey for several weeks, so Turkish mills expect it will be willing to trade at similar levels to the most recent Baltic purchases.

Some deep-sea exporters which showed availability to Turkish mills this morning decided to wait until next week before closing deals as they are aiming for closer to $465/t cfr for premium HMS 1/2 80:20.

Even though metals markets were volatile this week, the Chinese steel market is still expected to receive support from decisions made at China's National People's Congress, which began today. There is still strong market expectation that China will reduce the rebate on steel exports post-meeting. Steel production cuts in China have also been widely discussed.

US scrap exporters targeted offers to Turkey and south America today but were not heard to have any luck in selling the cargoes. The US has declared March shipment availability throughout this week, fuelling expectation among market participants that some suppliers are seeking to control further upward price movement at a slowed rate.

The multiple sales by some Baltic exporters also leads to expectation that other scrap exporting regions are content to treat the current price level as a temporary ceiling.

One rumoured US sale to Turkey was denied by both parties. US mixed cargo offers were at an average price in the mid $470's/t cfr but there was a lack of appetite today from Turkish mills.

Turkish steelmakers have overall seen enough availability to keep demand calm at the end of the week, and their local rebar demand has subsided with prices not yet able to move further up.

In the short-sea Turkish imported scrap market, the Argus daily A3 cif Marmara steel scrap assessment decreased $2/t to $438/t on no mill appetite at $440/t cif. The last Romanian sale traded at $438/t cif.

The Argus daily A3 Russia-Ukraine fob Black Sea steel scrap assessment increased $4/t as coaster freight rates on the Rostov-Marmara route fell to $32/t on vessel owners' need to fix cargoes to fulfil an export quota for grain and corn on 15 March.