Turkish scrap skyrockets, seen racing past $600

Scrap prices ballooned on fresh deals heard on Thursday.

One mill in the south is heard to have bought EU-origin HMS 1&2 80:20 at $560/tonne cfr Turkey on Tuesday.

A Baltic supplier, which offered HMS 1&2 80:20 at $590/t cfr on Wednesday, refused a bid at $580/t cfr and then sold 23,000 tonnes of 80:20 at $585/t, 6,000t of shredded at $610/t and 6,000t of bonus at $610/t cfr.

An EU supplier has sold 13,000t of HMS 1&2 75:25 at $588/t and 4,500t shredded at $620/t cfr.

These deals point to a sharp increase in scrap prices considering last week’s deals at $515-520/t cfr for HMS 1&2 80:20.

Although there are rumours of a shredded scrap deal being concluded at $640/t cfr from the UK, this is yet to be confirmed. A US supplier is nevertheless heard targeting $640/t cfr levels for HMS 1&2 80:20.

Romanian scrap was bought by a Turkish mill at $555/t cfr.

One Turkish mill source told Kallanishon Thursday: “Everything has gone out of control. This is an extraordinary situation and people are trying to get the most from it. $600/t cfr will be exceeded today.

A scrap supplier says: “Even if you need to sell, no one should offer HMS 1&2 80:20 at below $620/t cfr today. At the current speed of the market, this will be cheap tomorrow. Turkey has not yet covered even half of its April-shipment requirements.”

While Turkish mills’ demand for scrap remains strong, offers in the market are scarce. Given this situation, scrap prices are expected to continue their sharp rises in the following bookings.

Turkish mills in the west were seen increasing domestic shipbreaking scrap prices gradually on Thursday, when prices rose to $510-525/t delivered from $495-503/t a day earlier.

Dock prices in the Benelux are also recording sharp increases, meanwhile. Exporters’ dock prices, which stood at €405/t ($448) at the beginning of the week, increased up to €470/t delivered on Thursday, with flow remaining weak even at these levels.

The Kallanish daily assessment for HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap increased $53.5/t on-day to $603.5/t cfr Turkey on Thursday.

Burcak Alpman Turkey