At least 10 deep-sea cargoes were booked by Turkish steel producers last week.
The most recent deep-sea transaction was a Baltic Sea cargo sold at $488 per tonne cfr on an HMS 1&2 (80:20) basis.
Suppliers in the United States were already heard to be raising their offers to $500 per tonne cfr on the same basis, but mills were not ready to accept that level yet, Fastmarkets heard.
“The market is increasing rapidly. A US scrap merchant asked $500 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20), but no one was interested yet. However, it seems like this is the lull before the storm; I think prices will increase further soon,” a Turkish trading source said.
“Some Turkish steelmakers have already raised their rebar export offers to $740-750 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis. But most of the mills struggle with pricing as demand and prices are still on rise,” a Turkish mill source added.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob main port Turkey was $695-700 per tonne on Thursday May 6, up from $645-650 per tonne the previous week.
The increase in prices was mainly triggered by recent changes in the Chinese tax policy which increased demand for Turkish billet and long steel in Asia.
As a result of the fresh offers and assessments gathered, the daily scrap indices remained firm on Monday.
Fastmarkets’ daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $489.38 per tonne, up by $0.55 per tonne day on day.
The daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $493.95 per tonne, also up by $0.55 per tonne day on day.
This left the premium for US material over European scrap at $4.57 per tonne on Monday.