DAILY STEEL SCRAP: Fresh US cargo sends prices down further

Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices went down further at the end of the week on the news of a fresh US booking, market participants told Fastmarkets on Friday May 28.

A steel mill in the Marmara region booked the US cargo, consist of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $503 per tonne and shredded at $513 per tonne cfr. The cargo breakdown was not immediately clear at the time of publication.

The previous deal from the US was on Wednesday, when a Turkish steelmaker booked 44,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) at $515 per tonne cfr. This equates to about $508 per tonne on HMS 1&2 (80:20) basis.

As a result, the daily scrap indices went down further at the end of the week.

Fastmarkets’ daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was calculated at $500.66 per tonne on Friday May 28, down by $2.98 per tonne.

And the corresponding daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $505.24 per tonne on May 28, also down by $2.98 per tonne, leaving the premium for US material over European scrap at $4.58 per tonne.

Turkish steel mills booked only two deep-sea cargoes this week.

The main driver of the falling prices was weak steel demand in Turkey’s domestic and export markets.

Falling steel billet prices in China brought a decline in import prices for scrap and Turkey’s billet and finished long steel prices have recently been supported by demand from Asia.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel billet, import, cfr China, was $650-660 per tonne on May 28, down from $700-720 per tonne a week earlier.

What to read next
The sharp rise in demand for lithium is outpacing the growth of an independent US supply chain, Ian Rodger, chief executive officer of lithium development company US Elemental, told Fastmarkets in an exclusive interview on Wednesday June 3.
Chinese zinc smelters expressed concerns of possible production cuts amid fierce competition for concentrates raw materials, as treatment charges (TCs) have dropped to historic lows at the end of May, though byproduct gains from sulfuric acid have still lent strong support to smelters’ margins, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for PIX Packaging Europe indices via an open consultation process between May 7 and June 8, 2026. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process.
The MB-MNO-0003 Manganese ore semi carbonate index, 36.5% Mn, cif Tianjin, $ per dmtu was published in error as $4.75 per dry metric tonne unit. It has been corrected to $4.74 per dmtu. The rationale for the same index on the same date was also updated to reflect this change. It erroneously stated that “Fastmarkets’ manganese ore semi-carbonate […]
The publication of Fastmarkets’ price assessments for MB-FEO-0004 molybdenum, MB drummed molybdic oxide Mo, in-whs Busan; for MB-FEO-0003 molybdenum, drummed molybdic oxide, 57% Mo min, in-whs Rotterdam; and for MB-FEO-0001 ferro-molybdenum, 65% Mo min, in-whs Rotterdam, was delayed on Monday June 8 owing to slow data processing.
Fastmarkets has corrected the rationale for its MB-NI-0247 Nickel sulfate premium, cif Japan and Korea, which was published incorrectly on Friday June 5 due to a reporter error.