The most recent deep-sea trade was done at the end of the last week, when a steel mill in the Iskenderun region paid an average price of $436 per tonne cfr for 35,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) and 15,000 tonnes of shredded.

The deal led to a $5-per-tonne downturn in the daily scrap indices on April 9.

But steel producers have stepped back from the market since then. They were struggling to sell finished long steel products in the local market, and demand in the export market was also limited.

Surging Covid-19 cases and the traditional slowdown during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan resulted in weak finished steel demand in the domestic market.

Scrap stocks in Turkey are not very low, and mills are busy with previous long steel orders. Thus, they were not in a hurry to book deep-sea scrap, sources said.

“The mills are happy with the previous orders, and their scrap stocks are sufficient. I think they will not rush to book scrap. Also, the market is very volatile. There is demand one day and there is not on another,” a Turkish source said.

Another trading source believed that mills may resume their bookings soon, since some of them have already started checking with suppliers.

As a result of the lack of trading activity, the daily scrap indices were steady on Thursday.

Fastmarkets’ daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $423.29 per tonne on April 15, unchanged day on day.

And the daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey was flat at $429.26 per tonne on Thursday, leaving the premium for US material over European scrap at $5.97 per tonne.