Turkey ferrous: Price up on Scandinavian sale

The Turkish scrap import price increased today on a Scandinavian sale to a Marmara mill concluded yesterday for June shipment.

The Argus daily HMS 1/2 80:20 cfr Turkey steel scrap assessment increased $8.30/t to $488/t cfr today.

A Scandinavian supplier was heard to sell HMS 1/2 80:20 at $488/t, shred at $498/t and bonus at $498/t cfr Marmara for June shipment yesterday. The buyer was heard to purchase at least three deep-sea cargoes yesterday, all for June shipment.

A deep-sea deal was concluded earlier yesterday at the equivalent of $16.40/t lower, showing how significant the upward price pressure is.

Turkish mills' export rebar offers are now around $150/t lower than Chinese rebar offers, so they can afford to continue to increase their offer levels, particularly in the face of a combination of strong local and overseas demand.

Southeast Asian rebar importers have found it difficult to source July shipment cargoes from Turkey in the past 10 days as Turkish mills are already well sold for this period. Their demand is also now fully veered away from China for all their imports and towards the Mediterranean, Middle East and India. A second Turkish rebar sale to southeast Asia this week was heard to Singapore at a higher level of $725/t cfr on theoretical weight basis, which nets back to around $704/t fob Turkey on actual weight basis.

Turkish domestic rebar demand continues to complement the export rebar sales which are now above $700/t fob. Three Marmara mills sold around 5,000t each locally at the equivalent of $710/t ex-works excluding VAT today. Mills have preferred during this last week of demand to stop selling once they sell around 5,000t and then offer higher the next day.

Turkish mills are in a position to tackle a $490-500/t cfr Turkey scrap price range because of the combination of local and overseas rebar demand coinciding with prices now moving to an average of $710/t fob / ex-works.

A continental European supplier and a Russian supplier were heard to be offering a cargo each yesterday for June shipment. Most of the suppliers which sold towards the bottom price level mid-late April have sold at least another cargo during the sharp price rise in an attempt to make a better average sales price. One supplier is heard to have sold on four separate occasions to Turkey since 19 April.

A total of 28 cargoes are now recorded traded for June shipment.

On higher short-sea price indications, the Argus daily A3 cif Marmara steel scrap assessment increased $15/t to $465/t.