Colakoglu raises home scrap buying price, Icdas hikes rebar further

Major Turkish steelmaker Colkaoglu pulled up its lira-denominated domestic scrap buying prices on Oct. 27, amid ongoing sharp Lira depreciation and strong imported scrap pricing.

S&P Global Platts’ daily HMS 1/2 (80:20) assessment was at $291.25/mt on Oct. 26. The HMS 75/25 and A3 assessments were at $281.25/mt and $280/mt, respectively, all CFR Turkey.

Colakoglu, one of Turkey’s largest EAF-based steelmakers, pulled up its lira-denominated buying price for DKP grade (auto bundle) scrap on Oct. 27 by Lira 70/mt to Lira 2,380/mt ($292/mt), while the company’s extra grade domestic scrap buying price rose to Lira 2,205/mt ($271/mt).

Turkish mills have been consuming around 30 million mt of steel scrap per year and are procuring generally one third of it from the domestic market.

As scrap costs rose further and the Turkish lira fell to a new historically low level against the US dollar, Major Turkish long steel producer Icdas, pulled up its domestic rebar list prices for the second consecutive day on Oct. 27.

Turkish Lira lost around a 1% further value against the US dollar and began to trade in the range of Lira 8.15-8.16/$1 at 1 pm local time on Oct. 27. Thus the depreciation in Turkish lira exceeded 2% within two days.

Icdas started offering 12-32 mm rebar at Lira 4,410/mt ex-works Biga, including 18% value-added tax (VAT), on Oct. 27, which equated to $458/mt ex-works, excluding VAT, relatively flat day on day on a dollar basis. This price, however, reflected a roughly $3/mt rise week on week, amid strong scrap pricing.

Sharp depreciation in the Turkish lira, however, has begun to limit rebar demand in the country’s construction.

— Cenk Can