Major global steel scrap markets have started to level off in recent days following sharp increases in the preceding few weeks.

A global shortage of steel slab is a key factor in rocketing flat steel prices, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.

Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices edged up further on Wednesday March 31 on news of a fresh US cargo, market participants told Fastmarkets.

Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices edged up on Tuesday after firm offers from the Baltic Sea region, although many mills were looking to achieve further rebar sales in the export and domestic markets before purchasing more scrap, sources said on March 30.

Vietnamese buyers have been seeking bulk deep-sea ferrous scrap to make up for a lack of supply from Japan, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Turkish scrap import prices have gone down, as expected, with news of a UK cargo being sold at the end of last week coming to light on Thursday March 25.

Turkish steel mills remained absent from the deep-sea scrap import market on Wednesday March 24, due to the slump in the value of the lira and weak steel demand, market participants told Fastmarkets.

Total crude steel output across 64 major producer countries was 150.2 million tonnes in February 2021, down by 8% month on month but up by 4% from February 2020, the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) said on March 23.

Increasing scrap flows and bearish appetites led to softer prices in the majority of international steel scrap markets in the week to Friday March 12.

New transactions concluded for containerized steel scrap cargoes sold to Bangladesh fetched lower prices over the past week, sources told Fastmarkets.