STEEL SCRAP WRAP: Prices yet to hit bottom in downward drive

Global ferrous scrap prices have yet to hit the buffers in their downward plunge. Buyers in Asia were holding back from purchases in the week ended Friday January 29, swooping in only for low-priced cargoes, but demand from China could support prices in the near term.

  • Turkey re-enters spot market
  • Bearish sentiment in US on lower transaction prices
  • Taiwan market in rapid descent
  • Covid-19 in Vietnam damps sentiment
  • India reports lower-priced bookings.

Turkey
Turkish scrap buyers re-entered the spot market from Wednesday onward, booking deep-sea cargoes from the UK and United States. They had abstained from buying in the earlier part of the week due to weak demand for downstream billet and long steel products.

The latest transactions were heard at $425 per tonne cfr for a US-origin cargo comprising shredded and plate & structural scrap. Other transactions were concluded at $416 per tonne cfr Turkey, also for US-origin materials. A UK-origin cargo was sold at $408 per tonne cfr Turkey on Wednesday.

Pricing history
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), Northern Europe origin, cfr Turkey.
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), US origin, cfr Turkey.

United States
Sentiment in the US has turned increasingly bearish due to recent sales of European cargoes to Turkey. Talk of significantly lower ferrous scrap prices continued to be heard in the US export market, based on such sales.

Pricing history
steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20), export index, fob New York.
steel scrap shredded scrap, export index, fob New York.
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), export index, fob Los Angeles.

Vietnam
Lower prices have resulted from a resurgence in Covid-19 infection rates near the capital Hanoi, and continuing cuts in Japanese export prices due to power outages and maintenance work at Tokyo Steel’s Utsunomiya facility.

Pricing history
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam.

Taiwan
Taiwanese buyers have swooped on lower prices from traders, which were slashing their offer prices to offload cargoes quickly.

Pricing history
steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US material import, cfr main port Taiwan.

India
The price of scrap into India went down in the latest trades on the market.

Pricing history
steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India.

What to read next
Technological advances, policy support and downstream decarbonization efforts are accelerating the shift toward lower-emission ferro-alloys in China. The industry, however, continues to grapple with the challenge of securing price premiums for green materials despite significant investments in new smelting technologies and sustainable supply chains.
Fastmarkets launched three new rare earth prices on Thursday March 19 to cover the global market outside of China to improve transparency in the rare earths magnet supply chain.
Fastmarkets has corrected its copper concentrates treatment and refinement charge indices, which were published incorrectly on February 27 2026 due to a backend calculation error. Fastmarkets has also corrected the indices' rationale and all related inferred indices.
The following India steel prices were published on March 20 after a one-day delay: MB-STE-0434 Steel hot-dipped galvanized coil domestic, ex-whse India, rupees/tonneMB-STE-0435 Steel cold-rolled coil domestic, ex-whse India, rupees/tonneMB-STE-0436 Steel hot-rolled coil domestic, ex-whse India, rupees/tonneMB-STE-0437 Steel heavy plate domestic, ex-whse India, rupees/tonneMB-STE-0439 Steel heavy plate 12-40mm export, fob main port India, $/tonneMB-STE-0440 Steel billet export, fob main port India, […]
The global tungsten market in 2026 is marked by extreme volatility driven by geopolitical tensions, trade disputes, and resource nationalism, especially between China and the US. These dynamics have caused significant supply disruptions and price surges across tungsten products.
In the past year, trade policy has and continues to fuel change and dynamics in the North American steel market. Meanwhile, inflation has remained at or above 2.7% while the Fed Fund rate hovers around 2.64. The consumer continues to bear a growing burden to keep the economy from stalling, as finished goods markets search for their own nadir, stability and potential growth paths.