Four fresh deep-sea scrap bookings were heard in the Turkish market on Friday, Kallanish notes, with one suggesting a downward price correction.

A western mill is confirmed to have booked on Thursday EU-origin HMS 1&2 80:20 at $640/tonne cfr Turkey.

Another mill in southern Turkey is heard to have booked HMS 1&2 75:25 at $645/t and shredded at $685/t cfr. Although this has been advertised as HMS 1&2 75:25, market participants consider this to be HMS 1&2 80:20 as the supplier usually provides higher quality scrap from Hamburg.

Another southern mill has bought a 30,000-tonne ex-Croatia cargo comprising HMS 1&2 80:20 at $637/t and shredded and bonus grade at $657/t cfr Turkey.

Following these sales on Thursday that pointed to a stabilisation in prices, a Turkish mill bought an EU-origin cargo on Friday comprising 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 80:20, 5,000t of shredded, 5,000t of HMS 1, and 5,000t of busheling at average $645/t cfr. This deal points to a downward correction in prices. Although it depends largely on the premiums paid for higher qualities, HMS 1&2 80:20 is said to correspond in this deal to a price below $635/t cfr.

On the short-sea market, a Romanian supplier, who panicked during the standstill in Turkish purchases, sold HMS 1&2 80:20 at $615/t cfr on Friday. Another supplier, however, sold the same grade at $635/t cfr, as the cargo also includes shredded and bonus grade. Turkish mills have started paying higher premiums for higher grades.

Following Turkey’s slowing down of scrap purchases since Wednesday, scrap prices in the Benelux are seen to have softened, while some exporters have started halting collection. A Dutch exporter, which increased its dock price to above €510/t ($559) in the first half of the week, was seen paying €505-510/t delivered for HMS 1&2 80:20 on Friday.

Turkish mills, meanwhile, report receiving stronger export demand for rebar after Thursday.

“I think people are convinced there will be no [Russia-Ukraine] peace in the near term,” says a long steel mill contact, who adds that there is stronger demand from the EU and Latin America. “We are hearing that more producers are halting production due to high energy costs in the EU. This is causing a shortage in the region and steel buyers to direct their purchases to Turkey.”

Although slow Turkish mill scrap demand, coupled with competitive billet and hot rolled coil import prices are exerting pressure on scrap prices, scrap suppliers seem bullish that scrap values will continue to rise.

“Turkey will return for the next round of purchases. It has to complete April-shipment purchases and start booking May cargoes,” says a US scrap supplier. “Turkey will need an even higher volumes of scrap amid increasing capacity utilisation and accelerated sales since the beginning of the [Ukraine] war.”